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Jewelry Making Class - Gem Carving
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Freeform Gem Carving- Demonstration of technique |
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Firstly, these pictures were taken on my bench,
as I went along. This is not National Geographic photography. Simply, it is there to illustrate
the purpose. Also, this is how it works for me. And any questions are of course, welcome. I answer
any and all questions, keeping in mind that the only stupid question is the one that is not asked!!
So, if there is something that is not clear, ask!! At --- hans@meevis.com
There are many different methods of carving stones. From the beginning of history, man has changed
found objects, ground and cut and polished them. There are many other ways to achieve the same
result.
One can cut and grind stones using simple hand tools made of wood and metal, with the
appropriate grinding medium. Or you can use a fixed mandrel, which has a small grinding or
polishing wheel attached to a bench mounted motor with a water drip lubricant.
The hanging motor is my preferred method however, because I can use it on my
jewelry bench without to much hassle. The end result, whatever method is used, is to bring a
rough object to a fine finished piece. And hopefully sell it and make some money…….That funny stuff
that pays the rent and buys gasoline, food and stuff…….. |
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To start, now that the preamble is out the way!
J |
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I had a +-10 carat rough aquamarine with imperfections. It had some
cracks and black inclusions which I wanted to carve out. To give an idea of the quality of the stone, it was good enough
to facet but it would have had inclusions. I dislike inclusions. So I decided that I will make a free form shape that
will lead to a stone that should be flawless and carved in a manner that is not planned, because I will follow the
faults and imperfections until they are gone. That’s the theory. Practice is sometimes a bit different. |
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Often, when you are grinding into a crack or flaw, the crack will run
with the grind, much the same way as a crack in glass will run. The only way is to go to a finer and finer grit, until
it is gone, or becomes acceptably small.
I like carving the stone until there are no more imperfections. That is
not always possible, but for sure I remove the flaws up to eye clean or I trash the stone. One thing to remember
always is “rubbish in, rubbish out.”
That does not mean that one cannot carve lower grade material
successfully. And indeed, it is important to learn on bad material, money not withstanding. The reason? Because it gives
you the worst example. Things break and chip, the polish is difficult, but the ‘teaching’ factor is high.
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The rough piece of Aquamarine and a Mizzy heatless wheel
This wheel is very rough and very fast. I use a diamond
dressing tool to trim them into a rough shape for carving.
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These are the grinding wheels I use.
Top is a Mizzy heatless trimmed with a diamond dresser. These
are available from Rio- Grand .
http://www.riogrande.com
Middle is a Durra-Green chipless wheel, from the Dental industry. This gives a
middle smoothness and then the green wheel gives a semi satin finish.
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These wheels can be ordered at
http://www.henryschein.com/
I also use diamond burs and wheels as well, but this project
did not need them.
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However,
if I do need them, these are typically the ones I would use. From the left, a cut off or facing disk, next a
course bullet burr, next a core drill, available in different diameters, then the next five are diamond burs that
are common in any jewelry or dental supply catalogues. There are many other shapes available. The bottom line when
buying diamond burs is this--- you buy cheap, you buy twice. Therefore, buy the best you can afford. |
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By now I have completely defined the piece with Mizzy heatless
wheels.
So it’s still rough. And there might still be flaws in the
stone.
Chasing cracks or fissures is useless with a Mizzy wheel.
They are so aggressive that they can cause subsurface cracking, and the finer finishing time is increased, due to
the heavy scratching. A light touch is needed always.
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This is important. From here on the stone is only finished off with
the finer wheels and then polished. So at this point I look at the stone as the FINAL shape.
Check the curves, check the smoothness, and the visual feel.
One way to get the feel of the stone is to cover it with oil. Any
thing like butter or WD40 or olive/sunflower oil will do. Held under a strong light, it will give you an idea of the
play of light, the colour saturation and the clear areas. It is also easier to see any inclusion and flaws.
Look carefully, and turn the stone around. Unlike faceted stones,
which are essentially little mirrors facing you, carved stones have a more ‘convex and concave facets or lines.’ The
play of light is more subtle and often resembles sunlight and ripples on shallow water. See areas you don’t like and fix
them if you can. Look at the stone through your customers eyes, not yours. (very difficult to do)
Once you commit to fine finishing and polish, it is not good to have
to change shape with fine wheels.
To be honest, I have done that so many times, it is not funny anymore
…(sighJ)
The Aqua, finished with the finer wheels is now ready to be sanded
down, ready for 220 Carborundum sandpaper polishing. |
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Basically, I use these two mandrels, and small pieces of 220
sandpaper.
I use an old pair of scissors and cut strips of sand paper and
then tear it into the small pieces pictured. The reason is that they give me the smallest diameter I can get.
However, if I want a larger diameter sanding mandrel, I put a longer length in. The diameter can also be increased
by putting two strips in the mandrel at the same time thus making it thicker in diameter. |
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So now I get to the finishing off.
To recap, I have gone through the following steps:
1. Basic forming with a Mizzy wheel.
2. Final shape with a Mizzy wheel that has been formed with a diamond
dressing tool.
3. Smoothing and clearing scratches with medium and fine grinding
wheels.
4. If necessary, small diamond burrs are also used. |
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The next step is using the hanging motor, common to all
goldsmith benches. Okay, so I know that non waterproof hand pieces are non waterproof. But they are simply tools.
They are meant to be worn out. So I spray the thing with WD40 and what the hell. They last a two or three years
and then I buy another one. |
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I use an old ashtray for water and dip the sandpaper in to the
water and sand the stone down.
I also use plastic bottle caps
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At this stage it is absolutely essential to use magnification like an
Optivisor to make sure only 220 sanding marks a visible and no more grinding wheel marks. No kidding. The quickest route
to a brilliant polish is to make sure the previous grit marks are removed properly. This is difficult to see sometimes,
so care has to be taken. The careful look for scratches at this stage saves lots of polishing time later. |
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Excuse my delicate hands, but this is how I work it wet. I dip
it into the water bowl and then bear hard on the stone until the water has sprayed out and the sandpaper becomes
dry. Then I tear a piece off, exposing new sandpaper and dip it in again and repeat the process.
It sprays a bit, but when 220 wet or dry carborundum sandpaper
is wet and new, it cuts very fast, but for a short time.
So the thing goes, dip, sand, tear, dip, sand tear. She cuts
fast but short.
This is also the way work with 1200 grit. |
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Looking close and holding tight. The Optivisor
gets spray on it, but it’s all good, sanding out the fine sanding wheel scratch marks |
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Aqua sanded down to 220.
Now in the old days, I would repeat the sanding process with
1200 wet or dry sandpaper.
If you don’t have diamond powder, then the trick with 1200 is
to use it well wet and remember that it goes blunt very quickly. So tear off after a small time of sanding.
I say this again.
Dip in water, sand a short time, and tear off. |
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These days, although I still use 1200 wet, I go from 220 wet to
wooden wheels charged with 1200 diamond powder and an oil based lubricant.
This is actually the easiest way to work the 1200 grit for me. |
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Making a Wooden Wheel:
I make the wheel out of dowel sticks of
different diameters that I buy in the hardware store. I slice them off like a ‘polony’ slice with a small saw.
I use a softish kind of wood. It forms into the gems’ curves
easy and then starts smoothing out. |
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I use a file to shape the wood to the
anticipated form, Spinning the mandrel in my hanging motor and holding everything steady on my bench peg. |
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A finished wooden mandrel, ready for charging
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This is another shape of a dowel stick, used to polish or
grind.
In this case a small dowel stick is cut off and a hole drilled
in it and an old burr is glued into the drilled hole. She is then shaped as in the method above.
Generally, the wood will form into the shape of the stone
after it has been finished with the fine stone grinding wheels. This is what you want, because it allows intimate
contact with the gem surface. |
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The black container is 1200 diamond powder mixed with olive
oil. I like it because it’s thick.
I use WD40 or mineral oil if I have to thin it out. If one uses
thin oil, it sprays off the wheel easily at a high revolution per minute. (rpm). Thicker oil keeps it on the wheel
nicely, but has less ability to spread over the stone. It is always the ‘spray factor’ with thin oil, or the
‘cling factor’ with thick oil.
The diamond powder I use is bought from
http://www.crystalite.com , but there are many manufacturers of diamond powder on the net.
This is a picture of a wooden wheel being charged with 1200
diamond powder and olive oil. |
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Now to get back to the polishing of the Aquamarine.
After I have finished with the 1200 wood I go to 50,000 grit
felt wheels. Sometimes I will also have 50,000 grit wood mandrels for difficult to reach areas. They also polish
well.
However there is nothing wrong in using a 1200 felt buff to
smooth things out after 1200 wood. |
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Felt or cloth mandrels, however, are the queens of silky
smooth. This is when it all comes together. When I say cloth mandrels, I mean a small piece of ‘T shirt’ material,
cut and impregnated with the appropriate polishing grit in a sanding mandrel.
This is a cotton cloth mandrel charged with 50,000 polishing
grit. |
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Then it is a matter of polishing with 50,000 felt buffs and
wood mandrels, until the desired gloss is achieved.
Like this: |
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This ends the Carving and Polishing tutorial.
The next one is fusing 18ct gold and making an 18ct fused gold
pendant like this. |
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Click to Enlarge
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Antilles Tel: +(599) 522-4433 Fax: +(599)
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E-Mail: jewelry@meevis.com |
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