My father works with tile, and he has contacts in the granite industry. I was thinking of asking this contact if they could make me some granite go stones. However, some people have told me that granite's not really useful for making go stones. I guess what I'm asking is this: is it possible to make go stones out of granite? Have any of you seen them before?

have you seen these?
http://www.algorithmicartisan.com/gostones/

Surprisingly, granite is not on the list of stones just posted. It's not a particularly expensive material, but the process of creating the stones might be. I would try to connect with the owner of that website and see if he can provide any insight for you.

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Does your father have any connections to try to use Dupont's Corian (usually for kitchen and bathroom counter tops) for Go stones?

I have no clue. I will ask.

Manufacturing stones from materials like granite would be very costly because the demand for them would be so small and the equipment needed to produce them on any kind of commercial scale would be very expensive... Presumably a cylinder of stone of about the right cross-section size would be drilled out of a large block of stone. Then small go stone-like disks would be cut from the cylinder and ground and polished to their final shape. Tolerances for the diameter, thickness, and shape would be strict, so quality control might be difficult. There might be a problem with chipping and splitting with machine cutting and grinding. I think such stone stones could be quite expensive, e.g. hundreds of dollars for a set.

On the web page for the exotic "gem stone" stones I notice that most of the stones are out of stock. This might be a reflection of low demand; stones are basically manufactured to order.

I'm not sure I understood that. Other than working in a hard stone (less fragile, less likely to break or chip) and so presumably using a different grit I wouldn't think any of the steps of that process different than when working in softer, more fragile materials, say slate or shell.

Nor would I consider this close tolerance work. Not critical that the all the stones produced be of exactly the same size, just that those of a particular set are close in size. So that's more a sorting problem than a production problem. Within a tenth of a milimeter? Maybe that's close tolerance for a wood turner but any machinist would laugh.

Considering one set will be made, all the stones have to be similar size. Its possible, but possible and economical are two different things entirely.

Rock and stuff like that? Hard, really hard. A quick search of lapidary sites will confirm hardnesses and practical workability of a wide variety of natural and man-made lithic materials. It's a fun study especially if you know nothing about rocks.

Forget rocks. I tell you what's easier to make a set of go stones with: slip-cast ceramics, molded ceramics or even molten glass.

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David Bogie, Boise ID
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