Backstory

Hedron Rockworks began with a desire to craft fun items for my friends. I started painting minis to provide an immersive experience for them. I even started modifying minis with green stuff putty to make customized characters. Here is a half orc bard starting his quest to invent rap. (Rapping - Rapidly Articulated Perfect Persuasion In Native Grunting)

Two years into playing my first D&D character, a wizard, I started to look for a nice dice set that would represent his personality and specialization with the school of illusion. I also wanted something with a very high quality feel. However, even with all the different styles of dice that are out there, I could not find exactly what I was looking for. 

My dad, a hobbyist jeweler, offered to cast a die in silver. I jumped on the offer and after a few hours of working the mold we cast a solid silver die. This thing felt amazing - the weight and shine were great, but the fact that it was hand-made was even cooler.

The silver die worked for a while but I wanted something more customized to my wizard’s character. I stumbled onto a post by JessesGems on Imgur that outlined the process for cutting an icosahedron from a gemstone. Completely mesmerized by JessesGems’ D20 and full of confidence, I set out on a quest to make my own gemstone dice. 

Luckily my dad had a gem faceting machine laying around. He lent it to me with a lot of guff about “this is why I keep everything, you never know when you're going to need it.” Equipped with a gem cutting machine and a soft rock from my backyard, I started cutting.

After hours of grinding I had my first stone icosahedron.  It was only a dark brown sedimentary rock that was poorly polished, but it was so cool to hold my first hand-carved D20!

I then moved into actual gemstones. Gemstones contain a lot of silica, which is much harder than the sedimentary rock my first D20 was cut from. I was 5 hours into the first facet of 20 and about to give up; 100 hours per die was not going to work. In a last ditch effort, I splurged on a diamond grinding wheel. Boy, was I amazed at the difference! Diamond encrusted wheels cut much faster than silicon carbide sandpaper. 

Perfecting the polish was an equal challenge. I spent weeks experimenting with different laps and polishing compounds, battling contamination, and even resurfacing a few laps. Finaly, I stumbled onto the perfect cutting and polishing technique.

It was time to learn how to carve the numbers. Little did I know, the quest for the perfect custom gemstone dice was just beginning. Carving the numbers would prove to be the biggest challenge. 

I started with a Dremel and a 3D printed pentagraph. This sort of worked, but it did not have the precision needed for the detailed numbers that are only 4.5 mm tall.

I moved on to a mill that I converted to a CNC. The mill carved very detailed numbers, but there were a few issues - the bits would only last for 3 numbers before they wore out, and it was very difficult to align. On top of that, the sound of cutting gems on a CNC machine will make anyone cringe.

With all the challenges of the mill, I turned to a CO2 laser cutter and engraver. This required extensive modifications, including a red laser that would swing out of the way of the main beam, so I could get very accurate positioning. It is now my primary tool for carving the numbers.

I have completed my quest to make dice for myself and my friends.  Now I want to make the perfect gemstone dice for you!