BinnZ Cuts

[BinnZ]

Hello friends, a topic about my new project. Many of you already know I love art. I love to see it and I love to make it. Recent developments in my personal life made me finally take the step to this new project, something I've been dreaming of for years. I bought myself a stone and some cutting gear, occupied a nice place in the garden and the project may start.

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This stone is a limestone from Pakistan. Its hardness is 3.5 which means roughly the same hardness as marble. So this is the real deal. No more soapstone sculpturing, this is the *bleep*. This block weighs 92.5 kilograms. It was a struggle to get it out of my car, through the house, into the garden. But with proper use of my old skateboard and some wooden planks I managed.

In the sculpturing shop I informed myself on good tools. They advised me to buy the three standard-most chisels with a diamond grinding block to keep them sharp. And I also bought a 750 gram hammer. They had various weight classes, the guy from the shop advised me this one or the one from 600 grams. This 750 hammer immediately felt good.
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All together this starting kit (the stone and the tools) costed me €212,-
Not bad for a hobby that will, for now, at least keep me busy for a couple of months I think
Good to go, I hope it won't be raining the rest of the weekend

[Art Blade]

wow, nice

You know, the form you wish to end up with is already there, inside the stone. All you need to do is to just chisel away the stuff surrounding it 

I wish you success and joy 

[BinnZ]

Yes indeed, and thanks

Well, I couldn't leave it there, although the weather wasn't exactly shining

The first thing I did was getting experience with the chisels. The main chisel is the one with the single point. It is used to do the rough forming of the stone. 90% of the cutting is done with that one. The other two are for fine tuning the lines and surfaces of the image when the rough form is visible already. (Man, I sound like a professional )
I worked both corners, one in a smooth way, round, and the other sharp like a cut. This took me roughly an hour:
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As you can see the weather isn't helping, so I decided to dedicate the rest of my time to the diner; pizza

[PZ]

That's a great hobby BinZ!    +1 for embarking on a new journey of fun and satisfaction.

I can't wait to see the progress 

[fragger]

Good for you, BinnZ Hope you have fun with it mate. It's always good to get away from the computer for a while and do something constructive and creative with your hands.

I've always had great respect for sculptors. I can visualize and create stuff in two dimensions, but when it comes to rendering that 3rd dimension I wouldn't know where to start (I mean, to create in real, physical dimensions, not the virtual dimensions of a 3D modelling program, which makes it almost criminally easy ) It always astounds me how sculptors know from looking at a block of stone where to start chipping away and how much they need to remove to get to where they want to be.

Just curious, do you need to wear a filter mask? I've heard that you can breathe in fine stone dust if you're not careful. Something to think about, if you haven't already

[Art Blade]

filters are for pussies. He'll just suck in the raw stuff and then sniff away the fine stuff

[BinnZ]

 

Well, didn't think of it Fragger. But the stone is very hard, and what I do now is mostly cutting. When it comes to polishing I'll inform myself about the necessity of protection with this material. Thanx for the tip

[Art Blade]

there's water. It prevents dust clouds, creates "sludge" (stone dust and water = mud) that even supports polishing and cools the tool/stone. Just don't eat the sludge

[fragger]

I don't know whether there is any risk or not these days. I do know that back in the olden days sculptors and stonemasons could get accumulations of stone dust in their lungs, but these were guys who did nothing but sculpt and w0#k with stone all their lives, often in non-ventilated locations, and they worked on large projects. These days I think it's mainly power tools that you need to take any kind of precautions with. For someone like you, who is going to be working on a small project once in a while and using modern manual tools for the most part, there should be no problem.

Hope I didn't cause you any alarm Binn I just thought it might be something to bear in mind.

[BinnZ]

Nevermind Fragger, I was curious enough to notice that indeed even while cutting there's quite an amount of dust being produced. You see it when you wipe away the stone grain; suddenly you are confronted with a cloud of stone dust as well

No worries though, it's not much and am careful

[Dweller_Benthos]

Very cool, Binn, interested to see what you come up with. I have no artistic talent whatsoever, so seeing this sort of thing always amazes me.

[Art Blade]

you could try to sculpt a cube, out of that cube.

[BinnZ]

Well guys, cutting stone is hard w0#k. I worked on it for two hours yesterday, and cut off roughly 1 or 2 centimetres off the top:
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Today I went on. To make the w0#k a little more exciting (for now there isn't much sculpting involved, just the round object in the centre, which is supposed to be a head, I shaped some shoulders next to the head. I know it's way too early for the shoulders, but just to get the right impression and as a practice run I already shaped them a bit:
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The spring weather is beautiful, and after an afternoon of hard w0#k I stretched myself on the couch for a little nap in the sunshine. When I woke up I realised I had been dreaming, and still somehow felt, the sound of the hammer hitting the chisel. The sound is quite intense. Not extremely hard, but it's the kind of sound that carries through. I felt like that sound was still doing its w0#k inside my skull.
Now that I'm writing this post it's gone, but it's certainly something to get used to, or maybe I should buy some ear protectors

If I continue with this speed, considering the fact that there's a maximum of 2 days a week I can w0#k on this stone, I will need 10 weeks to get the rough shape of my sculpture cut out. Then comes the fine shaping w0#k, the details, maybe even polishing some parts... this project will keep me busy until late summer I guess

[Art Blade]

 

[LowPolyOWG]

Nice, can't wait for the final result