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What is a hobby you'd love to get into but cant for what ever reason
(lemmy.blahaj.zone)
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this post was submitted on 29 May 2026
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Gem cutting. Once you have a good machine it doesn't cost a lot of money for raw gem quality rough.
I want to cut synthetics since I don't like the idea of a hobbyist screwing around with non-renewable gems... Also synthetics are flawless and can have cool color shifting patterns like ametrine (amethyst/citrine) or even watermelon colored corundums.
I just want to make shiny jems to look at :( I want to cut giant Portuguese cut cubic zirconia and square cut color shifters :(
It's like $2000-5000 for a decent lapidary setup... And that's not counting abrasive wheels.
I often make the same argument against myself for limited resources but ultimately, if the resource is affordable, then it probably isn't rare on the scale that hobbyists would affect it. But then there's helium, which is somehow not anywhere near abundant enough for the low price they charge to fill a balloon. While hobbyists still wouldn't affect the supply that much, I don't like supporting balloons anymore. Weird hill to die on for 95% of people or greater.
Yeah I know and for certain gems like garnet or corundum we're literally never running out. It's things like tanzanite (my fave!) or emerald that are far more worrisome. With industrialized mining we can yank it all out of the ground way faster than we can find new deposits.
Tanzanite might only have the weird and oddly specific conditions necessary for it to form in this one rift in Tanzania.