These are select pieces of rough hand picked to make incredible dice. They are large blocky pieces of some of our best materials! Cutting dice takes a lot of time and effort--you might as well start with something special.
I have also added two options for smaller 'starter' dice rough:
White IRCM sapphire cylinders These are approximately 20 mm long slices from longer sapphire rods which were intended to go into infrared countermeasures against heatseeking missiles (IRCM) back in the cold war. Dice made from these will be bright and durable (and might help you on your saving throw against fireball)
Golden laser garnet boule tips (Ce+Nd:YAG). These are nice conical preforms, from the ends of crystals grown for use in lasers. Cutting these pieces is an easy way to start making dice, and they would also be good for cutting exceptionally large round cuts.
We also have large pieces of rough which are photographed and described individually and can be purchased from the drop down menu.
Pink Nd+Ce:YAG Boule Top. These crystals are grown for use in laser rods, but the tops concentrate impurities and can't be used for technical purposes. This also gives them a unique range of colors including zones of purple, pink and peach--this one has a very rare blue zone at the top! The tops are also very well shaped for cutting dice, almost a preform for a D20. It has dull red fluorescence. There are is one visible bubble in the very center. It measures 38mm in diameter and 53mm long and weighs in at 153g.
Golden Ce+Nd:YAG Boule Top --it is a lot like the first stone but with a lot of cerium and just a little neodymium, which gives it a gorgeous golden yellow color which shifts between different lighting. It has a light yellow fluorescence with a small spot of pink. I haven't spotted any bubbles in this one but these boule tops often have some at the very center that are hard to see. It measures 37mm in diameter at the widest point, 54mm long and weighs in at 165g.
Hyperfluorescent LuAG! This garnet is grown for its incredible green fluorescence which is used in detecting invisible radiation. It is also a wonderful gem with a high hardness of 8.5 and good durability. It is legendary material and should cut a D20 that will look like pure crystallized magic. The small 16.4g piece measures 15x12.7x12.6mm. The medium 66g piece measures 24.7x22.8x22mm. The large 132g piece measures 33x30x27mm and has a few long, very thin bubbles at the top and some tiny ones in a line in the center which should add some interest to the interior of the die.
Dayglow GAGG: Like LuAG this lab created garnet is grown for its incredible glow and it really shows--not many gems can compete with this color! This one has several bubbles and a few healed cracks but should hold together during cutting. The stone measures about 21 x 20 x 19mm and weighs in at 54g
Laser Alexandrite: An amazing material grown mostly for medical lasers, lab alexandrite is very uncommon and difficult to get even for us. The centers of the boules pretty universally have a ring of bubbles, which this die blank contains and should add an amazing galaxy-like sparkle to the finished stone. The color is impossible to get on camera, mostly cranberry red but with purple and blue. This will be a truly one-of-a-kind D20. It weighs 70.6g and measures about 35x23.6x23mm.
Aqua Color Yb:YAG. This material was also grown for use in lasers, and it has a light aqua-blue color. This should cut a very bright and brilliant gem! It weighs in at 75g and measures 29 x 30 x 27mm.
'Phantom YAG': An unusual material that occurs from contamination at the edges of HDSM boules of laser YAG. I don't know exactly what colors it, but it has a beautiful striped platinum grey color and strong pink fluorescence. The smaller piece weighs in at 34g and measures 23.5x18.5x17.5mm. The larger piece piece measures about 39.5x24x24mm and weighs in at 76g and has bubbles on one edge which can be removed in preforming.
Lab grown laser ruby: This is a piece of a large crystal that cracked apart during growth and thus didn't meet spec. It is very fluorescent with a vivid hot pink color. It is an irregular but chunky piece that will need some preforming but should yield an incredible die. It has one minor fracture but otherwise seems to be totally clean. This one will be unbelievable! It weighs 58g.
Rich Red Lab Ruby: This ruby was probably being grown for ultra high end watches or some other technical application but cracked during growth. It's a vivid slightly purplish red, has incredible fluorescence and is totally clean. The shape is a little irregular but it will make an unbelievable D20. It weighs in at 82g and measures about 31x28x28mm.
Blue Lab Cobalt Quartz: This is vintage Russian lab created cobalt-doped quartz from the old Alexandrov lab. This material has an incredibly vivid blue color! They have a colorless seed plate running through the middle but will still make an incredible die. The 81g piece measures 37x30x28mm and the 86g piece measures 38x30x29mm
Rutile:This next stone is incredibly special and I doubt we'll ever have many of these: a solid chunk of lab created rutile. Rutile has by far the highest dispersion of any gemstone worth the name which means it splits light into its component spectrum. This piece is perfectly clear, gemmy and should cut the brightest, most vibrant D20 ever. It weighs in at 65g and measures 27 x 27 x 23mm
Dichroic moissanite: This stone is blue through the sides and golden yellow down the length--once cut the golden color will be much lighter as it currently has a dark cap on the end. The blue also gets more vivid--the frosted faces make it look greyer than it is. Moissanite is very hard and eats through cutting laps so make sure you have extras! It also likes to heat up during prepolish so dop and cut with care. The end results are worth it though! It's the hardest gem that can feasibly be cut into a die and it is more brilliant than a diamond, and the dichroic nature should make it incredible when rolled. This stone has a few bubbles and needles. It measures 28x26x25mm and weighs in at 57g.
Dark dichroic moissanite: This stone a darker variant of dichroic moissanite, with flashes of green and gold. This stone has a few bubbles and needles. It measures about 27.6x26x23.7mm and weighs in at 51g.
Padparadscha-colored titanium laser sapphire: This material is grown for use in powerful infrared lasers and has a beautiful orange-pink color that resembles natural padparadscha sapphires. It has some bubbles which have a bit of directional sparkle when they catch the light. It weighs in at 129g and measures about 48 x 38 x 35mm.
Soviet Laser Garnet: Pink-orange experimental laser garnet grown in the Soviet Union. This material is YAG with both Er and Nd, likely grown in an attempt to make a dual wavelength laser. The color shifts from pink to orange and often looks golden on camera for some reason. This stone measures 23x21x19mm and weighs in at 45g--it is totally clean.
Dinosaur Bone: This one is a bit unusual for us, but still a Gem of Science: dino gem bone! This is an actual fossilized dinosaur bone where the structures have been preserved in agate, yielding an amazing and unique gem. They even show detailed structures under a microscope! This material has some voids and requires extra care in cutting, but should yield an unbelievable one-of-a-kind D20. It also has a single stray saw mark that should come out in preforming. It weighs 74g and measures about 38x30x28mm.
Deep Green Laser Garnet (CTH:YAG): This garnet is grown for use in far infrared lasers, and has a deep, pure emerald green color with no fluorescence. This one measures 30x38mm and weighs in at 81g.
Christmas Garnet (Cr:YAG): This garnet is grown for use as a Q switch in lasers and has a rich green base color and strong red fluorescence. This one measures 30x38mm and weighs in at 81g.
Golden Lab Wakefieldite: Maybe the ultimate challenge in dice cutting with the biggest payoff! Wakefieldite is soft (mohs 5) and has two directions of perfect cleavage: polishing a big die would be very hard and you would have to be very careful rolling it. But it's also one of the most brilliant and fiery gems there is, with cut stones actually resembling rutile. So not for the faint of heart but likely to be a showstopper! The clean section of this crystal measures about 29x28x26mm, the top will need to be ground through or trimmed off.
Natural Topaz: A big crystal of natural topaz, ready to make an amazing D20! The 99g piece has a light brown color and measures about 45.8x36.5x31.7mm, a couple of fractures right at the surface that should cut out, the middle looks fairly clean. The 158g piece measures 43x41x39mm. This piece has a few inclusions but they seem to be concentrated on the edges. Color is a light peach/blue bicolor, should cut amazingly bright.
Natural Andamooka Matrix Opal: Big chunks of natural opal in matrix from Andamooka, Australia! These are in a limestone matrix with bright streaks of opal fillings cracks. They are tan out of the ground and have to be treated to get a darker background, typically by soaking in a sugar solution and then exposing it to sulfuric acid which carbonizes the sugar. This treatment goes into the stone--these pieces were trimmed from a large piece of rough and still show the darker base color throughout though with streaks of white. This material is porous and may give an extra challenge in polishing but should make for incredible dice! these were photographed damp. The 51g piece measures 39x29x29mm and the 53g piece measures 29x28x28mm.
If you don't see what you're after for your die just drop me a line!
