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Fortunately for Dewitte Hagar his radio production and publicity agency folded during World War II and helped his yearning to enjoy life instead of rushing madly around in this hectic world. So he took his ex-fashion model wife, Jane, down to Manhattan Beach, California, twenty-five miles from Los Angeles, and built a home facing the Pacific ocean.

Some years before 1945 Jane Hagar had become interested in lapidary work: the grinding, fashioning, and polishing of all sorts of semi-precious gem stones such as agates, jade, opals, sapphires, petrified wood, garnets and a host of others for use as settings for rings, pendants, brooches, combs, bracelets, tie pins. Dewitte talked her out of the idea because he thought it was just another fad to get steamed up over, then drop in a couple of years.

Shortly after building at Manhattan Beach the Hagars went to an exhibition of cut and polished semi-precious stones. Dewitte was amazed and fascinated by the beauty of the finished stone settings made from stones found in such places as deserts, mountains, rock slides, and beaches all over the world.

Dewitte and Jane from that time on were in the lapidary hobby for good. In a short time they acquired grinding, sanding, and buffing machines, all electrically operated. They built in hundreds of tiny drawers for supplies, and the various stones in stages of production in their double garage; a wall gallery five shelves deep for the display of hundreds of kinds of stones and agates, petrified woods, jaspers et cetera from over America and many a foreign land. Their garage became a work shop and gathering place for rock-hound friends of Southern California.

TODAY DEWITTE and Jane Hagar are considered among the finest lapidary workers in this country. Their exhibitions of unmounted semi-precious stones have won prizes in many shows. Dewitte Hagar is past president of the Los Angeles Lapidary Society (largest in the world). He helped form the South Bay (coast cities near Los Angeles) Lapidary Society, and was its president in 1948. Jane Hagar is now president of the latter organization. The Hagars are therefore eminently qualified to tell what this interesting and profitable hobby is about, and how one may get started in it.

The Hagars' home is a stone's throw from the stretch of sandy seacoast of the charming town of Manhattan Beach. The windows of their house look out over the ocean where black oil tankers and grey ocean liners pass and repass along the horizon. Wandering along this beach, Jane and Dewitte have garnered an amazing collection of jasper, petrified bones and woods, flower stones, and agates washed ashore from deep sea ledges and undersea mountain slopes during storms. All of these, when cut, ground and polished to bring out their color and form, make beautiful gem settings.

Back of their house is a patio and grill. Then comes the large double garage and work shop. The residence proper is decorated with paintings by several of the West's great artists, along with numerous water colors and etchings. Several of Jane's fine rag rugs decorate the pegged hardwood floors.

TODAY YOU will find many strange and fascinating items in the Hagar studio and work shop. A sack of bones is filled with the silicified (turned to stone) bones of a dinosaur that roamed Western plains fifty million years ago. Small rounded and polished stones the size of a potato are gastroliths—the gizzard stones used by dinosaurs to grind their food. The Hagars will tell you that these gastroliths were themselves prehistoric when the dinosaurs swallowed them.

There are baskets and shallow boxes filled with rocks and pebbles, stones and large boulders. To the neophyte these are merely dusty, dull colored rocks. But the keen eyed and experienced rock hound knows that when they are sawed into thin slabs, trimmed, ground and polished to certain shapes and a high lustre, there are in these stones depths of color that rival the rubies of Burma in their reds, pinks, purples, lavenders, creamy greens—every color that a sunset or rainbow shows.

Among the semi-precious stones found on field trips by the Hagars are the following: opals (California, Nevada); many types of agates (all over U.S.); jaspers (all over West); garnets (many Western states); petrified woods (many parts of U.S., but best cutting types from Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, California, Utah, and Nevada); rubies and sapphires (Montana); turquoise (Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico); amethyst (Michigan, North Carolina); topaz (California, Colorado, Maine) the latter is a clear crystal selling as high as $80 an ounce; emeralds (North Carolina); jade (Alaska, Wyoming, the beach at Monterey, California).

Sources of stones for lapidary work are widespread, and costs for them vary from finding them free, to cents to dollars. You may make field trips and find your stones in a natural State. You may trade with other rock hounds. Or you may visit or write to lapidary supply stores and buy what you need of stones imported from far away Africa, Brazil, China, Mexico, and many other lands.

How will you recognize gem-bearing minerals in the field? There are many books which may be bought or borrowed at your local library, which will provide this information. Dr. Pough of the American Museum of Natural History says that "Gemstones" by G.F. Herbert-Smith, published in London by Methuen & Co. gives the gem hunter a thorough picture. An older book, first published in 1892—"Gems and Precious Stones of North America," by George F. Kunz—is still authoritative too. A recently published volume is "Gem Hunter's Guide," by Russell P. MacFall.

There is always that fascinating possibility on field trips of finding pieces, boulders, even veins of gem stones worth hundreds to thousands of dollars. Lapidary club members often make group field trips to seashore, mountain, and desert. But the amateur and professional rockbound often will venture afield with his wife, or alone.

BEFORE DISCUSSING how the Hagars work, let's find out what they make from gem stones, and what they have done to turn this hobby to a good profit through the years.

"Discerning people are becoming increasingly aware," says Jane Hagar, "of the possibilities of individual jewelry in comparison to the 'assembly line' costume stuff sold in department and ten cent stores. The gem settings that lapidaries make will last a lifetime. No two can ever be alike. The prices for these stones set in silver or gold settings is within the reach of almost everyone."

Among the many items of personal adornment that have settings made from gem stones are: rings for men and women (these retail at $12.50 to $100 after being set in silver or gold mountings); bracelets (to sell for $25 to $350 mounted in silver or gold); pins, ear pendants, combs, stone-handled cutlery (the agate stones usually used); lipstick holders, lapel pins, and shoe buckles.

Polished gem stone settings unmounted sell from $2 to $75 or more, depending upon kind of stone, customer, and method of sale. A manufacturing jeweler will often take a quantity of finished stone settings, but his prices are lower than the lapidary receives from other types of sales, varying from small stones at 75 cents to several dollars.

Although the Hagars do not put nearly as much time into grinding and polishing stone settings as they did at first, they manage to make from $50 to $75 a week between them on selling the finished stone settings alone. They place displays of setting gem stones on consignment with shops and department stores. These will retail at from $3 to $10 each, the store getting fifty percent. The Hagars often have their most attractive stones set in silver and gold rings and other mountings, then place these items on consignment. They have such metal work done by amateur metal workers whom they know, at a price about one-half that charged by professional jewelers.

The Hagars display their mounted and unmounted stone settings at all available lapidary shows. These shows always receive a good deal of press publicity. Many sales take place here. The public picks up business cards of the Hagars, and later sales develop from these cards.

Jane Hagar's classes in lapidary work are attended by both men and women. She charges $15 for six lessons, one lesson a week. She staggers her classes and gives two a week, starting a new class about once a month. At present she runs from five to eight students to the class. She says that the energetic student can get a good foundation in gem grinding in the six-weeks' course.

Mr. and Mrs. Hagar could make a good living on grinding and polishing stones alone. Their present markets have developed from classes, press advertisements from shows, business cards, consignment display, word-of-mouth advertising.

TO START a small work shop for gem grinding and polishing you do not need as elaborate a setup as the Hagars. But here is theirs: A slabbing saw with twelve-inch diamond blade for cutting fairly large rocks into slabs; also for cutting nodules and geodes. Next to it is a smaller or trim saw, which uses either a six or eight-inch diamond blade and is used for slabbing smaller stones, for cutting the slabs into thinner pieces to be worked into settings or rings, pins, and the like and for roughing down or cutting off corners, unwanted edges to as near final grinding size as possible.

Next you will find the grinding outfit at the Hagars: two large grinding wheels; the coarse grinder of 80 to 100 grit; the fine one of 220 grit. Stone settings are roughed out first on the coarse wheels. Then on the finer wheel they are carefully ground and brought to a perfect shape and smooth finish.

Then to the sanding wheels: here you will find that several kinds of wheels are used—cabochon sanders, drum sanders, flat sanders. Sanding cloth and sanding papers (silicon carbide) in 100 and 220-grit are much used. For most stone materials cut by amateur lapidaries it is unnecessary to use a finer than 220-grit for sanding.

"If a stone is properly ground and sanded," asserts Dewitte Hagar, "it is easy to get a superb final luster polish on it."

After a stone is sanded to a proper shaping and smoothness, it next goes to the polishing wheel. This wheel is kept covered to protect it from floating grit or dust. When it is being used no other grinding stones are allowed in operation for fear of getting their floating coarse cutting grit dust on the polishing wheel. The operator even washes the sanded stone settings and his hands before beginning work on the polishing stone.

All these cutting and grinding and polishing tools are electrically operated. The Hagars stand at their work, although some people prefer to sit. There is plenty of directed overhead light to see the small jewels by.

Alongside this polishing wheel is another electrically operated axle which will take in turn such polishing units as: hard rock felt wheels, leather wheels, muslin buffs and canvas buffs for the final high gloss polishing. These are used wet with a tin oxide solution, except the muslin buff which is run dry with a rouge stick.

You will be fascinated to watch the polishing that brings out the fullest color beauty in the depths of these stones. Water drips constantly on the grinding stones to prevent glazing, burning, excessive wear.

Tin oxide is the all-around polishing agent for stones most used by amateur lapidaries. Also used is cerium oxide, titanium oxide, levigated alumina, and chrome oxide. The larger gem stones are hand held for grinding and polishing. The smaller ones are glued to the ends of "dop" sticks with sealing wax and can be handled with dexterity.

THE HAGARS work whenever they wish, as long as they wish, day or night, putting in hours at slabbing and grinding settings, then sorting them into various drawers for such materials until needed. Perhaps they will have an order from a dealer for settings for rings and costume jewelry. They fit such work in with their other activities: Jane with her lapidary classes and club activities; Dewitte with his drawing and writing and the lapidary supply and machinery end of the business.

Every few months the Hagars plan a field trip. They may spend days or weeks in the deserts or mountains of California, Arizona or New Mexico, searching for gem stones in the rough. They frequently search their beach after heavy storms for jasper, agates, the petrified woods and bones. It was on this beach that Mrs. Hagar had the two most dangerous experiences of her lapidary life.

"Jane was wandering barefooted along the beach while heavy waves were still rolling in after a storm," recalls Dewitte. "Storms at sea and heavy under-tow and waves combined to throw upon the sands material ripped loose from under-sea ledges and mountain sides. Jane was intent on her search for treasures, paying little attention to the waves. Suddenly she spotted a fine piece of petrified wood and swooped at it. At that very moment she was overwhelmed by a huge wave. It smashed her down against a rock outcropping in the sand and broke her right wrist. But she held onto that piece of petrified wood."

A couple of years later," Dewitte recalls, "Jane was searching along this same stretch of beach at the tail end of a storm. She spotted a nice chunk of petrified bone and went for it. And again a big wave whammed down over her and smacked her against the same rock outcropping—this time breaking her left wrist."

Dewitte Hagar, feeling that more efficient machinery equipment should be available for lapidary work, has designed and manufactured several items in this line. Among them is a cut off and trim saw that is being used not only by lapidaries, but in many parts of the world by glass cutters, tile men, etc. in industry. Also, a smaller trim saw with moving table is outstanding in its price field.

Other lapidary machinery developed by Hagar includes an aluminum drum sander with a positive locking device which prevents any slack or bubble in sanding cloth or paper. There are also arbors (or mandrels) for grinding and sanding. All of these give the gem stone hobbyist more efficient equipment at lower cost to work with.

The Hagars will be glad to help any hobbyists who want to start a business in the semi-precious gem stone field. They handle tools, machinery, supplies. Dewitte Hagar also has written and sells at fifty cents a copy a booklet, Instructions in the Cutting and Polishing of Cabochons.

THERE ARE several hundred mineralogy societies and lapidary clubs and societies in the United States, and the movement is growing fast. There are seventy-five clubs in California, fifty in Washington state. There are about 40,000 members of such clubs in the United States and at least several million people engaged in collecting, grinding and polishing semi-precious gem stones.

The lapidary movement is actually world-wide, being an out growth of the mineralogical society movement, and closely allied with it. There are lapidary clubs and supply dealers within reach of nearly everyone.

The annual convention of the Mineralogical Societies of California is held in different cities each year. The 1951 show was in Oakland. The Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies with headquarters in Denver, Colorado, held its annual show in Phoenix, Arizona, last June. The Mid-West Federation of Mineralogical Societies held its annual show last May in San Antonio. The National Federation of Mineralogical Societies held its annual show in Chicago.

"The two greatest thrills of being a lapidary and a rock hound," says, Dewitte Hagar, "are finding some choice stone in mountain or desert wastes—and grinding and polishing it until you have a gem setting with depths of color rivaling the rubies of Burma, the diamonds of Africa, even the rainbow."

Dewitte Hagar will tell you with justifiable pride that his wife is the best amateur gem cutter on the West Coast. She has many display cases of gem settings that are a collectors' delight and a joy to any lover of beauty.

Probably the most unusual item that the Hagars have is a highly polished piece of gem jasper which plainly shows in profile the face of George Washington. The coloring is deep and beautiful.

"Discovered it by accident," recalls Dewitte. "I was cutting up some pieces of Stone Canyon jasper into blanks for ring settings. I turned over one of them and saw on its side this perfectly defined portrait of Washington. It was one chance in a million that I did not saw right through it with the diamond saw blade."

IF YOU get into this hobby of hunting gem stones afield and then grinding and polishing them for jewelry use, you are likely to find your local newspapers sending its reporters and photographers around to do feature articles on you and your work. But bear up under this cross, advises Hagar. It is wonderful publicity and helps you sell your work. Dewitte Hagar likes to tell of the time he and Jane discovered a "lost treasure"—and promptly lost it again. "A great disappointment," he says. "We were on a field trip in the Eastern California desert with friends. That is really arid country, dry and lonely and beautiful. Jane and I were off alone exploring beyond some rolling hills we had never seen before. We literally stumbled over a huge geode the size of a water bucket. It was filled in the center with large quartz crystals, perfectly terminated. And this, my friend, really is some find—if you know your rocks.

"With hammering hearts we turned it over and over, examining it. A superb find, and worth no end of money, easily hundreds of dollars. But it weighed a good 150 pounds of dead weight. Darkness was fast coming down, and we were far from camp—maybe lost.

"I tried carrying it. Impossible! We decided to mark it down and return the next morning with help to retrieve it. We hurried off over one hill after another, down rocky washes and ravines, past giant clumps of gaunt cacti. Finally we located camp by the fire our friends had set. The following day we searched and searched for our treasure—but it had vanished as utterly as a stone tossed into the ocean."