Post #318915 by prairie jade on Mon, Jul 16, 2007 9:30 AM

hi folks, i've been lurking,reading all the stone carving posts for years now. i live in kansas-50 miles from the nearest rock, and 800 miles from the closest jade in wyoming. nonetheless i've actually tried my hand at some jade carving.
my wife has the tama 'stoner' tiki and i have the high bid so far on his big snow-splotched e-bay offering.
nice to meet tama- benz and paipo--so good of you to freely share your accumulated knowledge of tools and techniques.
benz- granite carving depends on crystal size for detail--since its composed of feldspar and quartz crystals there is some danger of popping out a crystal in the attempt to carve detail. i use the scrap to cover concrete steps.
the question about turquoise carving--i've carved alot and prefer unstabalized nuggets of a naturally hard variety like carico lake, smith, white mountain or some sleeping beauty. the stabalized varieties would depend on what stabalization method was used- but the majority of turquoise carvers prefer stabalized because it has a more even hardness.
robin- i was at the big sur jade festival this last fall too.-i was the huge hippie in tie-dye buying all the ocean-tumbled pebbles in sight and as many of matthew glasby's carvings as i could afford.
thanks again folks for this wonderful site and all your friendly advice.
i'll try to post more and dig up some pics.