Lapidaryforum.net
Rock Art => Carvings and Sculptures => Jade Carving Gallery => Topic started by: southerly on April 08, 2020, 01:26:06 AM
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One of the advantages of working from home is having more time for carving, able to sneak into the workshop for an hour or two each day or so.
A friend I gave a jade hook last year said they liked it because it looked like a wave. That made me sketch various ideas of waves, finally settled on one to try. This is Wyoming nephrite, it was an end piece and has quite a bit of the rind in it. This is the second carving I have done from this block and it is great to carve but very painful to sand and polish, it orange peels on diamond from about 800 grit up and has lots of micro pits and soft spots. Originally I took it to 14k but it looked crap so I took it back to 800 grit matt finish similar to many NZ carvings.
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Looking good. I think a some jade looks better not super shiny anyway.
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Very lovely form! Like the use of the stone's natural gradient
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Some jades are very very odd. This problem is similar to ones we have with a fair amount of Washington jade. Very hard Washington jade is small in percentage and is usually easier to polish than the softer kinds but not always. Many of our jades will simply not polish using a standard polishing sequence. I can polish almost any jade using a diamond nova wheel well worn and going from wet to dry on the wheel. when it tugs the polish comes up bu this normally only works up to 1200 grit. Wet or semi dry with grits beyond 1200 the finish radically deteriorates and it becomes necessary to go back and do a thorough wet sanding at 600 and then to wet -dry at 1200.Even muslin buffing with fabuluster will usually degrade the finish.Good decision on the 800 finish. A very counter intuitive stone.
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Very nice design.
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I love this wave design! Beautiful piece. :icon_sunny:
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I love it, Almost a yin yang with the negative shape being as strong as the jades shape.
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Some jades are very very odd. This problem is similar to ones we have with a fair amount of Washington jade. Very hard Washington jade is small in percentage and is usually easier to polish than the softer kinds but not always. Many of our jades will simply not polish using a standard polishing sequence. I can polish almost any jade using a diamond nova wheel well worn and going from wet to dry on the wheel. when it tugs the polish comes up bu this normally only works up to 1200 grit. Wet or semi dry with grits beyond 1200 the finish radically deteriorates and it becomes necessary to go back and do a thorough wet sanding at 600 and then to wet -dry at 1200.Even muslin buffing with fabuluster will usually degrade the finish.Good decision on the 800 finish. A very counter intuitive stone.
Your comment re some Wa jade is very hard struck a cord. We were digging toplant a new tree and happened upon a piece of jade. I thought it looked interesting and put in my 14" Lortone with a MK301 blade. I had almost no success cutting it in two different directions. It was a nice dark green and polished dramatically where the blade worked on it for awhile.....Has me looking for a new blade.
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You could try the Agate Kutter blade. It is designer for higher speeds without burnishing so at lower speeds with a hard material like jade it might do better?
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You could try the Agate Kutter blade. It is designer for higher speeds without burnishing so at lower speeds with a hard material like jade it might do better?
irockhound,
Thank you for the suggestion. I looked at the Agate Kutter, but (for some reason) thought it might not be the ticket. I'll revisit it.
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I love the design and the color gradient is awesome!
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Big hard washington jades stop a lot of saws even with new blades and the slowest setting. Go back to cutting a big agate and no problem.Never used the agate kutter blade myself , may be worth a try.