Questions about working with real jade.

Ray

Dealer - Purveyor
I'm sure I've seen knife handles with real jade worked into them somewhere (like spacers). Am I right about this? Does anyone have any tips on working with jade? Cutting, drilling, polishing, etc?

Thanks,

Ray
 
I'm sure I've seen knife handles with real jade worked into them somewhere (like spacers). Am I right about this? Does anyone have any tips on working with jade? Cutting, drilling, polishing, etc?

Thanks,

Ray

Ray
You probably saw some reconstituted stone..........available in a lot of the supply houses.

"Reconstituted Stone : a handle material that is a mixture of a powdered gemstone and polyester, polyethylene, or acrylic. It is also known as stabilized stone. The reconstituted forms of gemstones are much easier to work with than the raw stones, and are impervious to moisture. Examples of reconstituted stones include: turquoise, azurite, malachite, chrysocolla, jade, jasper, black onyx, lapis, rhodonite, blue river agate, marine agate, leopard skin agate, amber, amethyst, cabochons, charolite, copralite, coral, emerald, chrysoprase, hematite, larimar, opal, conch shell, rhodochrosite, sugalite, variscite and spiney oyster."
 
HI,

In my youth I messed around with cutting some and I will tell you it is darn hard stuff to work with. Hard to polish and tough as nails. Never did finish my project was too hard to work with!!
 
Real Jade is going to require lapidary equipment to work....just no way around it. Working stone brings with it a whole new set of rules and circumstances. As has been mentioned, it's just plain tough to work with, especially when your used to working with materials as forgiving as steel, non-ferric metals, and woods.

On the other side of the coin, IF we are talking about the Reconstituted Stone...that's very much like working the material most folks are accustom to as it relates to knives.
 
OK. I see that the reconstituted stuff is the way to go. I just order some. The vendor says it can be worked with conventional tools. I imagine it's pretty brittle though. Any other considerations?

Thanks again,

Ray
 
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