Rock Carving (new member)

Hi Jack,
Welcome to the forum! I do some shaping with my dremel using diamond burrs (40 grit). It's very time consuming but works if you don't have a grinder. Check through the posts, there's lots of info on shaping stones.

Cher

Hi,
Thanks for the Info I had a dremel in mind as I had seen ,a article on drilling stones with it,I will have to find out how to get some bits.

I have a grinder also and a couple of angle grinders, and I can get a small dimond blade for them ,will these work ok?

I also have a dimond saw, but find it dificult to see with all the oil lubrication flying around.
I greatly appricate your help,
Thanks,

Jack,

(Yorkshire UK)

Hi Ron,
Thanks I will try them, Happy tumbling,

Yours
Jack (yorkshire UK)

Hi Jack, Ive got a dremel from b&q - havent used it for stones - mainly for woodwork and tiny grinding jobs.

B&Q do a miriad of bits - probably the whole range.

Andy.

Hey Rose, here's a post about rock drilling with a Dremel. It's not to late to ask Santa for a drill press attachment as well!

Ron

andy321.proboards16.com/index.cgi?board=tips&action=display&thread=1101001744

Hi Jack and welcome to the group!

I don't know what type of rocks you are going to carve or what the subject will be so it's hard to give you info on what you will need.

I did some carving a while back and as usual jumped right in and started at the end instead of the beginning!

My first carving was a small guitar out of petrified wood.




I used a Dremel with a flex shaft attachment and had a water drip for keeping the burrs from burning out.The water drip also helps to wash the carved rock residue away so you can see what you are doing.

By the time I finished the carving my right index finger hurt so bad I could hardly touch it as the pressure needed to carve and heat from the flex shaft was very uncomfortable.

I had plans to do the carving with a lot more detail but found out as I went along that it's not all that easy to do so I just quit while I was ahead.

After I did the guitar I did a little reasearch on rock carving,(which I should have done in the first place),and found that a beginner would do well to start carving with much softer material.

We have a very pertty white marble that's common to the area here in Connecticut USA so I got a piece of it and carved a small crucifix on a pedestal out of it.






This material was a pleasure to carve as it's MUCH softer then the petwood and needed a lot less effort to do.The photo's are poor quality as I only had a web cam to take them with at the time.The marble is VERY white and here it looks a washed out yellow.

My 3rd carving was carved out of Colorodo Pink alabaster and has become my favorite material to work with.
You don't need any power tools to carve alabaster!You use any tool that will work on wood.Saws,files,knives,drills,,,etc.

I carved a small candle bowl for my first attempt and to my surprise it came out pretty good!I left one side of the bowl in it's natural state and carved and polished the rest of it.










There are a few things that are nice about carving alabaster.One is that you don't need to use water and the other is that you sand it with various grits of sand paper and polishe it with a good floor paste wax!If it starts to dull a little just buff it up and off you go.

This is what can be done with alabaster,,,,,,I wish they were mine !!










If you should deside to carve the harder materials with a Dremel it is done in the same manner as if you were holding the Dremel like a knife to cavre with.For a right handed person you would hold the material in the left hand and the Dremel in the right carving/grinding toward your chest.The reason for this being that looking at the Dremel as if you were pointing the diamond burr toward yourself,it turns in a anti clockwise direction.Carving in the other direction will only cause you a lot of trouble never mind a nick here and there on your fingers and hands.

Also,the water drip will splash all over you and everything around you so you'll have to wear suitable clothing or end up getting all wet and have the carving residue all over you.I ended up wearing a rain suit after taking a very dirty shower with my first touch of the tool! LOL Not to mention that my eye glasses were completely covered with the mess.I found that I didn't need as much water as I was using but it is still a messy adventure!

It's up to you what subject and material you will carve but I suggest starting at the beginning with the softer materials and not at the end with the harders ones like I did!!

Tom

Hi Jack,
Well that's great that you are going to retire in the summer.Congradulations!!

I thought carving a cross would be easy.Boy was I ever wrong. Just to get the geometric's of it right can be difficult to say the least.Actually the carving started out a lot bigger and when the cross didn't want to cooperate it got smaller and smaller!!

I started the carving from the top and it's a good thing I did or it would have ended up out inthe back yard.

I have always wanted to cut (not carve) a crucifix out of a big thick slab (3/4 " - 1" ) of petrified wood but have found it very expensive to buy.

I now have an 18" slab saw so all I need is a piece of the 'wood' and off I go!!

Good luck,,,

Tom