Black Mobius

[David G]

Well it has been quite a while since I posted some of my work. I have 3 projects on the go at the moment and this is the first one I have surrendered on (not sure you ever 'finish' a carving). This is 'black mobius', made from West Australian nephrite jade, 60mm x 21mm x 14mm. It took a ridiculous amount of time and effort, it came up nicely in the end, but I can't help thinking it needs more wow factor for the effort.

 

Original slab ready to go

 

 

All marked up and ready to party

 

 

Blocked out preform and plasticine model used as a carving guide.

 

 

10 hours of burs and dremel and the mobius is finally freed from its rocky prison

 

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Grinding done, now to the hand sanding sticks. Many hours of sanding sticks...

 

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Used nail polish to identify the areas needing more work, very hard to see scratches in pure black.

 

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'Black mobius' revealed...

 

 

 

 

 

 

David

[Stefan L]

Beauuuuuutiful work, love 2 c this kind. well inever carved a stone in my life but 1 day it may happen, n i know who i will ask 4 advic

[Ken R]

David,

Very nice work. There is no doubt about it, black jade is very hard to work and time consuming to bring up a good polish.

Ken

[michael B]

David, that WA black is one tough hard stone, awesome result, did you core out most of the inner material.

[David G]

Michael,

 

I drilled a hole each end starting with a 1.5mm core drill and working up to 8mm cones. Most of the material is removed using thin disk shaped burs that work like both a saw and a plane. Many hours grinding on this one. Also use small rod burs but these often cause me more work than they solve. May tackle a softer stone next time.

 

David