South America or China

Most (all?) of the sets I've seen out of China have been carved. (I can't recall a natural stone set) The carved sets are usually pretty poor quality, too thin, too many the same shape, being so thin they wouldn't hold the heat well. I use some carved stones, but they are much thicker than anything I've seen out of China, and they work well, particularly for the specific techniques I am using them for, so I'm not anti-carved stones (though I think an entire carved set limits you)

The South American sets I've seen have been natural stones, same for Mexican sets (though you don't see them much any more).

Thanks so much for your reply Cola,

I will continue to search for stones from South America. I have found a few, but have to purchase direct from the states and the shipping costs are high. I suppose it's a case of you get what you pay for!! Unfortunately my budget is low 🙁 plus I wanted to practice to see if it's a treatment I want to offer, as I wasn't too sure when I did my training, so didn't really want to spend a huge amount until I'm sure where I'll be going with it.

Thanks again.

Snitchley

I am from South America - Brazil

If you want good stones, please order them from North America... they have the best basalt stones ever... vulcanic stones, great, I have at least more than a 100 stones, and i purchase them all from a landscaping store in Deerfield Beach Florida. A bag of stones is no more than 20 dollars... and you can make several sets with it...

I have a short video, you can check at the youtube... and you will see the stones, crock pot etc...

(video removed by moderator)

I hope I can post here my blog

you can check how I handle the stones, with a ordinary crock pot at the blog below...

[url]Terapia das Pedras Quentes[/url]

Thanks

You will find out how easy is to make a very affordable hot stones set.

Where do we buy our stones from?

The stones we use for hot and cold stone massage are Basalt stones right? Basalt stones come from areas where there has been a lot of volcanic activity. Basalt varies in quality depending on where it comes from and what other types of igneous rock it has mixed with. The black stones we see coming from China have generally been cut and shaped using various high heating techniques. They are cheap yes, but quality poor. The basalt itself is of low quality also they do not hold their heat for long. Basalt from South America is of good quality generally as they are coming from an extremely volcanic region of the World and are mostly of pure basalt composition. The only issues here are that the stones are too small to use in a decent massage. Using smaller basalt stones will give you the therapist more unnecessary work to do - firstly you'll be using more power in your treatment as you will be doing more work, tiring you out quicker and secondly you will have to go back to the heater more regularly to swap in your stones as the smaller the stone the less heat it holds. Also please remember that the majority of these stones are bought in bulk from Garden and Building supply companies, not people out there harvesting stones with a specific task in mind!

I recommend you look for companies who teach high quality courses and who have been on the circuit a long time and ask them where they recommend you get stones from. I use a European source (namely Greece) and the stones from here are wonderful. Large, small, beautifully shaped, high quality basalt stones which are handpicked specifically for stone massage therapists.

Think also: Keep your carbon footprint low and support the European market - support the local community! 🙂