White buffalo stone is a relatively new discovery, found in the turquoise mines in Nevada. It was given its name from the Native Americans’ symbolization of pure and rare. At first, it was thought to be white turquoise, but after being analyzed, it turned out to be a dolomite mineral made up of magnesite and alumite. The Otteson family, who originally found it, made it extremely popular amongst the turquoise crowd. The high contrast of black & white is eye-catching and elegant.
Since the original find of white buffalo stone, a few other varieties have been discovered. One in particular was in an outcropping at the base of Rodney Frisby’s Vista Grande Variscite mine in the Candelaria Mountain region, northwest of Tonopah. This find was named “midnight buffalo.” It is the same material, but a mirror image of the original. It’s mainly black with a white spiderweb design. At times it has some golden webs because of the addition of iron in it.
Buying White Buffalo Stone & Midnight Buffalo Stone
Because of its scarcity, finding it might be a bit pricey, but well worth the cost to be able to experience cabbing this beautiful material. When finding it to buy, sometimes slabs might be a better choice. When inspecting the rough, it can be hard to see how far the patterns will run through the entire stone and how stable each piece will be. Rough pieces seem to crumble around the edges where they have been exposed to nature, but usually, the center portion is very stable and will cut solid cabochons. One thing to look out for, though, is pitting and microfractures in the white areas. The best is almost opalized and obtains the best polish for the finished stone.
Slabbing
To start the slabbing process, there’s no right or wrong direction. Clamp it in the saw in a portion that holds it securely and make a few test cuts. If the patterns of white aren’t to your satisfaction, rotate the stone in the saw and try from the opposite direction. Generally, I like to cut it down into smaller size pieces and hand-cut it in a 10-inch trim saw. This gives me the ability to turn the stone in various directions more easily than clamping it in a vice several times to find the best patterns possible.
Once your slabs are cut, this is where to bench test each piece and flex or tap the slabs against the workbench gently to see if any will break off. This might be the time to also consider stabilizing your material. Most turquoise is stabilized before cutting into cabochons due to its softness, but this is a material that you might want to secure the fractures as well as a few natural pits.
Cutting Buffalo Materials
When cutting either of the Buffalo materials, I generally start gently on an 80-grit steel wheel to trim out my shape and start the dome on top. After completing that, I suggest a 60 and 140-grit soft resin wheel if you have it, or a 220-steel wheel. It doesn’t take much to smooth this material over, although be cautious of the varying softness between the black and white, as the black is much harder, and might leave a slight undercutting. From this stage, move on to the 280 soft resin wheel and do the majority of the work here. Be sure to dry occasionally to see if you have any scratches left to work out. Once all the scratches are gone, you’re good to move on to the 600-grit wheel, and at this point, you should start to see a really nice gloss shine start to develop.
To finish off your cab, work your way up to either 8k or 14k grit and it will take a nice glossy shine.
Much like turquoise, to get that added mirror finish, I like to use Zam polishing compound, or cerium oxide on a felt tip using a rotary hand tool. This will make the shine and the contrasting colors pop.
This story about white buffalo stone and midnight buffalo stone previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story by Russ Kaniuth.
