working with stone

J

Jared Stenoien

Joined
Dec 4, 2005
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I just scored a large slab of AMAZING banded green jasper, and have decided to use part of it on the kitchen knife set I'm working on. I will probably have access to the wet belt grinder at my college and I was wondering if anyone had any advice for working it besides not getting it too hot. Thanks.

Edit to add: picture
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And that picture doesn't even begin to convey the true beauty of it.
 
In my opinion the person to ask is Jay Fisher. Search for him on the forum. If anyone can help you he can.
Matt Doyle
 
I've talked to him before, here's what he says on his website.

Jay Fisher said:
Sorry, I don't give advice on how to work with materials, stabilize, etch, engrave or any other tutorial

This is not a tutorial site, no matter what you may see here. There are a never ending amount of questions people have, and they figure that since I have such a voluminous site, I'm bound to know the answer to their technical knife questions. I probably do, but if I answer any of those emails, I'll invite a flood of questions and answers, all which cost precious time and do nothing but benefit what could be a competitor! How crazy is that?
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You can cut it using a diamond blade wet tile saw. I once had a rented tile saw that I was finished with and had a few hours to play with it. I used it to cut up some scraps of granite. Then I carefully used the blade like a grinder and ground/carved several small figurines. It worked pretty well.

I have an uncle that flint knaps reproduction arrow points. He uses a lot of expensive agates and other gem stones. To reduce waste, he slabs them out on a rock saw. Then he rough grinds to shape using a green silicone carbide wheel on a regular bench grinder. Nothing special, just stands in front of his grinder and hogs them out. I think the silicone carbide wheels are soft enough that heat doesn't really build up. He even did a large jade reproduction Egyption knife. His "blanks" look like a convex ground knife blade (before he pressure flakes). For the finish you just wet sand with regular wet or dry sandpaper. The wet belt grinder should work great for that.

Hope that gives you a start.

BTW, google "mohs scale jasper" and you'll get a relative hardness scale for different materials.
 
Are you trying to make the whole handle out of the jasper, or inlay it, or use it as spacers? I have found that a dremel tool (or any rotory tool can help a lot with stones)!
 
Oh second question I forgot! Is it stabilized with a resin (something like reconstituted stone) or is it natural?
 
You live in an area with hundreds of lapidary hobbyist,try the local club.There are probably low cost classes with the appropriate equipment to properly do the job right.
 
I don't have a ton of experience working with stone but I have made a few knives that had stone spacers and inlay, and have been experimenting on finishing different types though I have yet to use a piece for the entire handle. So take this advice with a grain of salt since you are the one with the piece in front of you and can feel how fragile it is. Depending on how big the slab you may want to try a dremel with lapidary tools. There are usually tons of people selling lapidary kits for a dremel on ebay that include saw blades and polishing items to use just for cuttting stone. The other option that I have tried and seems to work very well is using a coping saw with a very fine blade (basically a jewelers saw). Yeah it takes longer but that way you go slow and the risk of ruining the stone is less in my opinion (and it's definitely the cheapest route if you don't plan on using stone all the time). I usually work with stones that are resin impregnated or reconstituted stone because they are more stable. Not sure if you could send that kind of stone out for that treatment or not, but if you are planning on making a knife to use you may want to look into that. I would think that a full slab handle out of stone could crack pretty easily if dropped. Especially around the spots where the pins go through. As far as finishing goes finish it like you would anything else. Start with a rough grit and sand your way up through grits and probably finish it by buffing with red jewelers compound. I would start out with something like 120 grit instead of 60 or 80 just to make sure you are not too rough on it. Anyways, with my limited knowledge I hope that helps some.
 
Hi, Jared. I'm sorry if I came off negative on my site; it's just that I get an incredible amount of traffic, emails, and inquiries. My site's topping 40k hits a day now, and it's pretty overwhelming...

Please look at my gemstone knife handles page on my site. It takes a whole set of special lapidary tools to work with gemstone, and Jasper in particular is very hard, so there are no short cuts. I've seen plenty of stone ruined by guys trying to finish it without lapidary process.

A tile saw that works under water will not work well on jasper, as the blade is rough, large, and water is not the right coolant for jasper. It needs to be cut under oil, and that requires a lapidary saw.

You need to get a good book on lapidary carving and it's also great advice by Shakudo to visit with some local rock and gem club and lapidaries. There are about a million little things that they can tell you about shaping, grinding, finishing, sanding, polishing, fitting, and working with stone that they would be happy to share.

The main thing you have to bring with you when talking about working with rock is ... patience!

Good luck with your project!

Jay
 
Thanks, I do understand about being busy and I appreciate you taking to time to chime in :thumbup: I actually look forward to getting one of your pieces some day. I've been planning on going down to the mesa arts center because I figure they'd know some of the larger clubs and might even have a lapidary class.
 
Jared Stenoien said:
Thanks, I do understand about being busy and I appreciate you taking to time to chime in :thumbup: I actually look forward to getting one of your pieces some day. I've been planning on going down to the mesa arts center because I figure they'd know some of the larger clubs and might even have a lapidary class.
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Your welcome, Jared. You're located in a great place for rock, man! Do take a trip down to Quartzite, I try to make it there when I can; there are some great suppliers down there.

Jay
 
Having done a little bit of lapidary, (mostly because somene wanted jewelry with an odd shape stone) and dealt with trying to make stone knife handles, I actually think Jay Fisher was helpful. Stone is a bitch to work with, it fractures from heat differential, has all sorts of odd cleavage planes, hidden inclusions, and weak spots that really want to just chip away. Look in the magazine section of a bood bookstore for Jewelry Arts magazine, which used to be called Lapidary Journal, there are ads in there for some decent lapidary equipment at only slightly absurd prices. You can shape and polish stone by hand with the right abrasives as long as you are really patient, but I wold advise spend the money and get the right tools, unless you are doing this purely out of love.

-Page
 
Jared, You have been given a lot of advise here. I would like to sum it up and add a little.
I got into the jewelery business by being a lapidary. I can tell you first hand that it takes special equipment and skills to shape jasper into a simple cabochon, and much greater skill to make a set of knife handles. Secondly, jasper (or most any stone) is the wrong material for kitchen knives. At your age I would recommend you honing your knife making skills and leave the lapidary work for a later point in life. Last, considering the expense of the equipment, and the time involved, there are much better ideas out there for you to experiment on.
Stacy
 
Jay is doing exactly what I to do when I retire in less than a month. I have a very nice collection of very good stone and other exotic materials to work with. The equipment needed is incredibly expensive and the time needed to do two scales is cost prohibitive for most applications. If you want to do this yourself find a rock club to join that has equipment for members use. I suspect there is at least one in your area. Jay is the best there is and his pictures and web site are a huge asset to all.
 
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