[Shane]

Hi i was just wondering how exactly you polish or carve jade with slurry mixes, i have read about it but have no clue what it is...

[dante lopez]

hi, I have no idea ,jajajajaja ,no maybe carbide dust mix's whit some other ruby or aluminum oxide will do the job ,I use a mix's of jade dust very fine for the final shine and it look nice but the best is diamond ,and chrome oxide ,I never like carbide mooch what is that you want to carve or polish? so I can give you a vetter idea

[Shane]

 dante lopez, on Dec 3 2009, 02:15 PM, said:

hi, I have no idea ,jajajajaja ,no maybe carbide dust mix's whit some other ruby or aluminum oxide will do the job ,I use a mix's of jade dust very fine for the final shine and it look nice but the best is diamond ,and chrome oxide ,I never like carbide mooch what is that you want to carve or polish? so I can give you a vetter idea

i have tin oxide to polish.. butt. iv figured out how to use loose grit to form jade:)

[Russ_B]

Hi Shane

How much of a mess do you want to make? I have recently read some interesting articles written in the 1950's on cutting and carving with carbide slurry. You will need a mandrel and bit of the size and shape that you wish to carve with, some of the materials mentioned are soft steel, iron, copper, bronze, wood, and even plastic. You will need to find a method to continually charge your mandrel, or bit with the carbide, either by a drip or paint brush, you need a water drip as well to cool and flush the jade. as you carve you can collect the carbide in the waste and recycle the grit for future applications.

I have tried the diamond paste on wood for sanding jade, (see my other reply to your other posting). I have used carbide paste for flat lapping but not for carving.

Good luck, post some of your pictures when you are ready. Dante does great carvings in jade and would be good person to get advise from.

Russ

[lauri]

 Shane, on Nov 11 2009, 11:42 PM, said:

Hi i was just wondering how exactly you polish or carve jade with slurry mixes, i have read about it but have no clue what it is...

Hi Shane, I have been using diamond coated tools with a dremel (B&D) for carving and then water-based Tetrabor (borcarbid) in grades 220, 320, 400, 600 , 800 and 1200. After that I have used fine and very fine oil-based diamond-paste. For borcarbid wood (bambu kebab-sticks) and for diamond hard felt. These you can buy in places selling dremels or dentist-tools. You can't fail, rest is easy when you are having some experience. Happy New Year! Lauri.

[Naomi Oliver]

Hi Shane,

last year I studyed how to carve jade , in new zealand. They taught us to use water and tin oxide, with felt (apon a drum point) when polishing jade.
since coming back to australia I have been carving at my local lapidary club, they use tin oxide and less water and a animal hide type product on upright flat wheel.

At the course in new zealand we grinded and shaped jade using expensive diamond wheels
, then sanded the jade carving with sandpaper (attached to the drum point )from 180 gsm to 2000gsm both wet and dry.
From my speaking to the jade carver there, before diamond products were available they all used carbide products only, and had a huge drum filled with slurry.

Back in ausralia I also have started with carbide products I have seen used at the lapidary club, and when finances permit I will purchase the diamond products .

the photo is of my jade pendant made from South Australia Cowell black Jade
happy new year.
Naomi

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[magnus homestead]

Hi Shane,

In 1972 I was learning some jade carving from a Chinese carver - we made our wheels from everything from large nails(using the head for the grinding wheel) to wheels of tin can lids rivited to said nails. We chucked these up in a simple lathe mounted on a mahagony carving bench. We charged the wheels by hand using silicon carbide grit - one finger of the left hand would hold the grit like like mud and touch it to the wheel as needed while you carved. One of the tricks to doing this is to use only grit that has been previously used to grind stone on a flat lap - new grit will not stick to your finger or the tool very well. It was amazing to learn all this, and I could certainly go into great detail with drawings of the table etc. as there were quite a few tricks such as the method of sorting out grits used into various sizes, but since the advent of so many readily available and inexpensive diamond tools, I have not thought it was worth the trouble and time. In other circumstances than my present hectic modern pace of life, I would think it could be very satisfying to use these old techniques - much as I enjoy hand raising copper vessels or making bread.
Best wishes to you and your jade carving - it is awesome to see so many jade carvers here on TCP. Do look up Donn Salt and check out his website and his posts here on the forum.
Blessings,
Magnus