Cutting the JAWS Theme using a Shark Tooth Stylus

[displacedsnail]

Hello fellow trolls,

I had a bit of fun this morning making a stylus from a fossilized shark tooth, then using that to cut the JAWS theme song. I know it's only March, but the sun is starting to feel like summer to me so hopefully this helps to get you in the mood!

- Joe

[farmersplow]

That's one of the coolest things I've seen here in a long time! The combination of technology and art: simply sharp as a shark's tooth!

[displacedsnail]

This whole experiment of making styli has opened my mind to think beyond diamond and sapphire! So far I've tried my hand at: high speed steel, tungsten, sapphire/ruby, almandine garnet, quartz, amethyst, and now...um, a shark's tooth. The high speed steel stylus is currently my favorite, though it does need to be resharpened pretty often, but the gemstones are just fun to play with--and pretty to look at!

[spinnertownblanks]

That photo looks like the cover of a film you’d cut the soundtrack to!

[displacedsnail]

If it were a documentary about the work I'm doing, we could call it "The Guy Doing a Largely Unnecessary Niche Thing in an Already Extremely Niche Field"

[farmersplow]

If it were a documentary about the work I'm doing, we could call it "The Guy Doing a Largely Unnecessary Niche Thing in an Already Extremely Niche Field"

Ha Ha Ha
You could also try tiger claws, turtle shells, and kidney stones, just to stick with natural, organic options. You’d surely be the only one in the world in that niche within a niche within a niche.

[displacedsnail]

tiger claws, turtle shells, and kidney stones

Don't tempt me! I'm entering my "if it's small enough, it might be a stylus" phase of life...

Here's been a fun discovery: I made a stylus using amethyst, and it sounds gorgeous when embossing! Low surface noise, strong high frequencies, and a match EQ that's only off by a few dB here and there. I'm sure you're all tired of hearing my synth pop song *69 by this point, but here is a digital rip of the test cut:

Star Six Nine (amethyst lathe rip).mp3

Here's the match EQ of the disc rip vs. the original song (well, the version @spinnertownblanks kindly mastered for me as a reference piece):

Amethyst star69 Match EQ.png

And a couple pictures of the amethyst stylus itself:

AmethystStylus1.jpg

AmethystStylus2.jpg

AmethystStylus3.jpg

I DO sometimes wonder if I'm getting the best sounds out of things like high speed steel and amethyst (~7-7.5 on the mohs scale) because they're soft and sharpen easily and I'm only using a 600 grit disc. I have a 3000 disc to do some polishing, but have found it unnecessary--perhaps for tougher materials, the polishing is more important?