The process of making a stone guitar pick

Here is what the picks start out as. The large rough rocks are inspected for the best places to cut. I usually slice the stones a few Millimeters thicker the what I want for the end results. by the time I grind and polish away the scratches and saw marks I end up with the proper thickness in the end. They range in thickness from 1-5 mm depending on the application and sounds desired.

Here is a shot of the slices, They are shown wet to see the colors and detail better, this is when the outline of the pick is scribed on to the surface for a guide when shaping the pick.

I usually leave a few mils that way as I work through the different grits i end up with the proper size and shape. I keep a plastic one near by for reference. Once the shape has been ground you can start on the thickness. Work both sides good to be sure to get all the saw marks out. work it thru the first 3 grits of diamond wheel. smoothing and flattening it as you go.
rounding and beveling the edge is started here but refined on the finer grits.
The next three wheels are considered the polishing stages.

This is where the stone starts to take on it's hidden beauty. the last three grits are 600 grit, 1,200 grit, and 3,000 grit. they also receive a finial polish on a canvas wheel with 14,000 grit diamond paste. Some of the softer Stones need a finer polishing step of 50,000 grit. For most the 14,000 is sufficient. Now you have super shinny stone pick.

This is my main grinding and polishing machine. It has 6 diamond wheels, from left to right they are 80 grit, 18o grit, 360 grit, 600 grit, 12,000 grit and 14,000 grit. Fresh water fed to keep the wheels clean and cool ( stone too). I use a wet saw with a diamond blade to slice the large rocks down to pick size.

This is a quick pictorial on how stone guitar picks are crafted.
I would say the it takes about 4 hours start to finish to produce one pick. The best part is I get to test each one by play with it for a bit. Thanks for lookin !!!!
Steve