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Great looking caves Lyretail, welcome to the forum by the way.

I especially like the distressed look, makes them look a whole lot more natural. Did you use the wet saw to achieve this finish? Any problems with the slate splintering? I may well try the "distressed" look on some of my caves.

Regards.

Adam

I used a high speed rotary tool called a "dremel" with a round heavy grit resin bonded sanding cylinder that was about 1 cm in diameter and about 2 cm long . I went through several cylinders - one for each cave. This tool allowed me to gradually carve the wavy shapes without splintering or mistakes. It took about 5 minutes for each cave. I tried other bits that I have including stone ones and none of them work that well. I had some ceramic cutting disks for the Dremel that did work, but they left sharp lines.

I distressed the cave edges after they were assembled - my face was pretty dusty when I was done

Another helpful tip

I accidentally bought some ungraded slate tile and now I understand why some people have had trouble making caves fit together with tight seams. The tiles that have been machined on one side for a more consistent thickness are easier to work with, but I was able to cope with the less consistent grade by chipping off high spots ( on the smoother side) with a good flat chisel and then sanding them on my bench sander. It took a bit more work, but the results were flawless seams. Even with graded slate, this is a helpful tip but the necessary sanding is much less.