Howlite Dice Inlaid with Brass

This project has been around for quite some time as we have been looking for a way to offer semi precious stone dice that could stand up to the rigors of play. We don’t make shelf queens. Our dice are made to game and we back that up with a lifetime warranty. Most semi precious stone dice proved to chip easily and wouldn’t hold up to regular use. That’s no bueno.

So how did we get around stones natural propensity to chip? Simple – we cheated. This new line of dice have been crafted from semi precious stone set in a resin matrix. The end result is flawless in execution, beauty, gameability (if that’s not a word, it is now). By binding the ground semi precious stone in a resin matrix, it adds a toughness to the resulting die that unaltered stone just doesn’t have while retaining all the visual properties and heft of the original stone.

These particular dice, have been crafted from Howlite and inlaid with Brass. Howlite was discovered in Nova Scotia by Henry How in 1868. It is most often found in irregular deposits resembling a dirty cauliflower. Once worked and polished, the dirty cauliflower appearance gives way to a lustrous white with black veining. Originally Howlite was tossed aside as nuisance mineral in gypsum mines until How’s discovery. These days you can find this mineral sold as “white” or “buffalo turquoise”. It is quite often dyed to resemble genuine turquoise, as the porous nature of Howlite allows it to take dyes readily. And like turquoise it is easily worked and used to make many decorative objects.