Another Sneak Preview - Lapidary Question Too

[Laredo7mm]

Sorry about being such a pest on this knife, but for some reason nothing is really hitting home for me on this. It is has been a continuous game of second guessing myself.

I finally got that piece of Jade cut today, so I had to try to shape it for my handle pieces. I was quite suprised at how easy it was to work. It went slow, but hey the stuff is hard. It is a 6.5 on the Mohr scale while steel is at 5.0 and diamond is 10.

I would like to get your honest opinion on this material for the fighter i have been working on. Below are some pics. The first one is what i planned this knife to look like.

Oh yeah, anybody know how to polish stone? I wet sanded these pieces to 1500 grit, but they still dont shine. I put some Briwax on them to get the glossy finish. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

 

[TJ Smith]

It looks like you have done a good grind on the jade. The thing you need to watch is not to get it to hot. It'll crack or craze.
try some diamond compound on a leather belt slightly damp.
Try 1200 then 3000 then up to 50,000. The diamond compound comes in a tube and is like a thick hand lotion.

 

[John Andrews]

Laredo, do you have any diamond compound? That's what I use for my hard material polishing. I made myself a buffer using a piece of hard felt ink pad cut into a rough circle and hot glued it onto a dremil brush. I then set my drillpress on low speed and lower the spinning pad down onto my item being polished. You don't need much out of the syrnge. The circle of the pad is about 3/4" and what you do is about 1/2 to 2/3 of the pad overlap while polishing and keep light but constant downpressure for a few seconds and then raise the pad and move the item over to the next overlap. Then just come down again and repeat.You will probably have to add a little oil once in a while, and more compound when needed. You will get the feel for it very quickly.A little of the compound goes a long way, and use very little oil because a lot of your compound will get lost or too thinned out.After you get your item pretty much polished this way, raise the pad and do a light polish overall with very light pressure. I have mirror polished metal that rockwelled in the 70's by doing this. Blades were specialty blades made from Sterret commercial hacksaw blades,the yellow painted ones of thickness .088 and.100 .I just saw TJ's post after I entered this, and I will bet it would work great for a rounded object like your jade,guy! It's going to be one heck of a knife, too!

 

[Laredo7mm]

Hey guys, thanks for the tips. Do you have any good sources for that diamond compund? I saw some at www.dadsrockshop.com not too bad of a price I think it was 5 to 8 dollars a tube depending on which variety.

The only belt grinder I have is my 2 x 60, so I dont think I want to use that with a leather belt, just because this project has ended up costing me a small fortune. I had to buy special grinding belts, the jade, get the jade cut, buy a coring bit, etc. so I am up to almost $200 and that does not include the cost of material for the mokume or the cable or my 25 hours I have spent so far doing two blades, the mokume billet, and the jade.

I have leather from making my sheaths, would I be able to polish with the diamond stuff by hand? Or would that just take forever?

John, I might try what you have done, but right now I am debating if I want to polish at all. This knife is going to be in a display case so it is not a user and will not even be touched. But then again I would like to do it right.

I have another question too. I am debating of weather using mokume on this knife. After seeing how this jade finished out, I am not sure mokume would look right because of the color. If I do use it, it will most likely be just straight laminate. I dont want the knife to be too busy looking. Any input would be great!

Let me know if you think I can polish this by hand. Thanks again.

 

[John Andrews]

Laredo, I don't think you will be able to beat that price for compound, and I would definitely polish the stone,too. I received a catalog the other day that had the compound several times the price you found. If I was to try to polish the stone by hand I would use a thin piece of felt, otherwise the thicker piece will just soak up your compound. The compound will work it's way in through the fibers, but using enough pressure will force it back through to your jade.That diamond compound works really quick,too.Let us know how you come out with it, Laredo. Good luck,L.