Carving tips |
When carving any kind of sculpture in stone (marble, granite or limestone), a SHORTSTROKE pneumatic hammer is almost essential. A 3/4" hammer for granite and a 1/2" hammer for marble. This allows fine control for delicate detail. This is in addition to a "Dallet" air hammer for roughing whether it is a 3/4" or 1" or both.
Use sintered diamond tools for granite and plated diamond tools for marble. This applies to blades, burrs and wheels. If you are using diamond water, then any kind will do.
Silicon-carbide burrs are very handy for milling and preparing the surface in marble for finishing. They sometimes complement and sometimes take the place of rasps especially in harder marbles and some granite applications.
Diamond files are almost indispensible when carving harder marbles. This is because most files and rasps WILL NOT abrade dolomite (grey).
One of the most aggravating things about carving marble is trying to make an edge quickly and efficiently. One could start the edge with a file and then slowly refine it with small chisels and files. or take a plated diamond burr (inverted cone shape) on a mini-grinder with a rear exhaust and tape a small plastic tube (clear) to it. Then run water through the tube (gravity or hose-fed) so that it feeds onto the burr as it spins. This way one could get the sharpest edge without worrying about heating up the marble and loosening the crystalline structure so that one "loses" an edge. One can apply this to any size diamond tool. |
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