The Tools of the Trade
Carving jade in a reductive process, it cannot be molded, added or bent.
Nephrite jades toughness is a double edged blade. On one hand it is THE toughest natural stone on earth making the task of carving incredibly time consuming, while on the other hand it is this inherent toughness that contributes to the stones ability to be carved into what ever forms the mind can conjure without fear that the stone cannot hold the form
Jade cannot be sculpted with chisels, hammers or files as is used with stones such as marble or soapstone. It must be ground and abraded used diamond coated tooling. In almost all cases these diamond coated tools are mounted in machines that spin them to cut and abrade the jade away.
In the reductive process for carving jade, saws, point carvers, hand-pieces and hand sanding implements are used to bring my ideas to fruit.
The Point Carver
This point carver is coined the "green machine" in china and is the main workhouse of my carving studio. 0-12,000 rpm with astounding amount of torque. Nearly every type of tool can be mounted in this machine.
Diamond Point Carver Points
Larger to small electroplated diamond burs, wheels, and blades are used in the point carving machine.
Point Carver Spindles
The green machine uses quick change spindles to efficiently and quickly remove and change tooling.
The Micromotor
The brushless micromotor is held like a pencil and used with a variety of smaller shanked tooling for the majority of pendant carving tasks.
I much prefer a micromotor to the cumbersome and loud fexshaft models.
Diamond Burs
Electroplated diamond burs are the main tool that I use with a micromotor handpiece.
Silicon Carbide Sanding Stick
Bonded with varying hardnesses and grits, the silicon carbide stone are much harder than nephrite and are used in the finishing process to sand the stone to remove scratches and refine the surface before sanding and polishing.
20" Drop Saw
As essential tool in reducing the size of larger stone is a diamond drop saw.
Tile Saw
Used very frequently is the tile saw. An affordable and readily available tool to cut smaller blocks down or trim slabs down.
Drill Press
Used with diamond coated core drills, the drill press is a very useful tool for rapid reduction, bangle production and saving pieces of jade that would most likely be turned to powder otherwise.
Diamond Paste
Water soluble diamond filled paste from 325 to 50,000 grit in my studio. They are applied to leather, felt, brushes, or wood. Used to achieve a high gloss polish or other lower gloss finishes.