Tools for Carving Jade

To accommodate the diverse projects that are undertaken at the symposium there is a wide array of tools and accessories to accomplish the most challenging project. 

The tool table will have mostly plated diamond burs, from tiny inverted cones for use in micromotors, foredoms, and deremels, to large egg shaped plated diamond points that are used in point carvers. Most of these were purchased in China from makers that the Suzhou Master Carvers buy from…so they are that good!

You will find 2″ to 3″ sintered blades as well for precutting in the point carvers. Sintered diamond products have
industrial diamonds at a certain concentration, packed into the
copper/cobalt matrix of the tool. They will last much longer than plated
tools, but need cooling with water even more than plated tools.

Sanding jade is achieved with many widgets. For the broad areas of a
sculpture, silicon carbide sanding sleeves in all grit sizes, slip onto an
8″ expandable sanding drum which is on one end of the Baldor Buffer in the
carver station. Smaller pieces can be sanded with silicone carbide sleeves
for the inflatable drums that fit into point carvers. There are 3 drum sizes.

Home made sanding discs with diamond cloth, mounted on 3/32 & /1/8 ” mandrels
are for sanding detail and inside areas. They are for Foredom or Dremel handpieces.

Velcro backed 3″ diamond pads also can be used in the point carver.
Working out the scratches in jade with silicone carbide sanding sticks is an
important step in the finishing process. There will be 3 grit sizes 220, 400
and 600.

The unavoidable hand sanding is done with silicon carbide wet & dry papers
and diamond sanding cloth backed sheets.

Diamond files are sometimes the only way a scratch can be eliminated or a
edge can be shaped to perfection. There will be lots to chose from.

Polishing can be achieved in many ways with jade. The tried and true method
for our purposes is with hard felt wheels that accept diamond compounds that
start at 14,000 and top off at 50,000. The heat created with a slight pressure of the jade on a charged hard felt wheel will produce a polish. Too much pressure will result in a heat build up that will burn jade, leaving a very deep white spot that has to be sanded out.

Core drills of many sizes will be on the tool table. They are used mostly in
the large and small drill presses with water feed systems for both.