carving jade

[dondougan@xxxxxxxx]

Justin;

I have not carved much jade - just a small piece to fit into another larger sculpture - but you don't 'carve' jade.  You grind it.

No hammers or chisels, but silicon carbide or diamond abrasive grinding wheels and saw blades.

On a small scale you can use the green-colored Dremel 1/8"-shank mounted stones (silicon carbide), or the diamond points.  Using water as a coolant will greatly prolong the life of the grinding disk.

I was buying some marble in our local granite country (Elberton, Georgia, USA) a couple of years ago, and talked with the owner of a marble/granite mill.  He told me a story about being approached by a client who had found a huge truck-sized boulder of Nephrite on his property.  The guy was building a house, and he wanted a room paneled in slabs of the jade.  The granite mill said they could do it, and quoted him an (astronomical?) price and the OK'd it.

Well, the upshot was that mill used their regular 6-foot diameter diamond-toothed water-fed circular saw to cut it.  It ruined the blade.  $50,000 later for a new blade (one that had a heavier concentration of diamonds) they finished and delivered the job.

I got a piece of the scrap slab from which I cut the bit of jade that I worked.  It is tough, and it grinds very slowly compared to marble or serpentine which is what I usually work.

For what it is worth, I'll pass along another bit of hearsay from the mill owner. He also told me that for some reason they tried a oxy-acetylene torch on the jade and said it cut like stainless steel . . . but I haven't tried it myself.

If you are looking at traditional jade 'carving' methods try your local lapidary shop or some of the mail-order lapidary/jewelry supply companies for supplies.

Good carving to you!
Don Dougan
http://www.dondougan.com