I have to disagree with the person who said cutting stones in oil
contaminated them forever. The main trick to it is proper care of
the material before and after cutting. Permeable materials should be
soaked in water first to fill all available spaces with water. When
taking your stones out of the saw, wipe them off and put them in
kitty litter for an hour or so. I used to slather on some green
Palmolive dishwashing liquid at this point, but the new orange oil
hand cleaners are GREAT at removing the oil . Then wash, rinse and
dry. If any residual oil or smell is noticed, repeat the orange oil
treatment. The main problem seems to be when people cut material and
leave it lying around or never do clean the oil off properly. By the
way, I bought jade slabs at a low price at two shows that was grimy
with oil. Is this supposed to make the stuff look like better jade,
or just sloppy workmanship? Sincerely, Rose Alene McArthur
@O_B_McArthurs
By the way, I bought jade slabs at a low price at two shows that was grimy with oil. Is this supposed to make the stuff look like better jade, or just sloppy workmanship?
G’day; If one goes to any of the jade factories in Hokitika in the
South Island of NZ you will see that they cut up the huge boulders with
great saws up to 5 feet in diameter, using water as lubricant and
coolant. Their work people take the slabs and convert them to
artefacts mainly for the tourist industry. and one can wander round
see what they do and they will happily reply to any questions and even
demonstrate how to get a brilliant polish to the extent they let me do
it! The also produce some scrap pieces which are put in a tray for
the visitor to browse over and to buy at not a very low price! They
also have a saucer containing a piece of rag soaked in oil nearby, so
one can wipe the rag over the piece of jade to get some idea of what
it would look like when polished. Thus, all the pieces are ‘grimy
with oil’. Before they put out the oily rag, knowledgeable viewers
would spit on the piece to see what polishing might do. Which practice
would you prefer? Cheers – John Burgess; @John_Burgess2 of
Mapua Nelson NZ
Her address is: skittles_spin@hotmail.com alias: starbright Hey, Robert
doesn’t answer me and Linda doesn’t answer you! I did write her
awhile ago and she didn’t answer until I got a turkey card from her.
Who knows what lurks in the hearts of teenagers.
Linda Crawford
Linda Crawford Designs
Willits, CA
http://www.lindacrawforddesigns.com
http://lindaspearldesigns.safeshopper.com
When taking your stones out of the saw, wipe them off and put them in kitty litter for an hour or so. I used to slather on some green Palmolive dishwashing liquid at this point, but the new orange oil hand cleaners are GREAT at removing the oil .
Here’s another tip on cleaning the oil off your slabs. I haven’t
tried it; just passing it along. Beth
"After a slab is cut, oil must be removed before the slab can be used
for anything. Some people let slabs drip and then use cat litter to
absorb the oil. Others let a slab drip and then put the slab in a
bucket filled with soap and water. Some use Simple Green or some form
of liquid dishwashing soap. Simple Green is faster than dishwashing
soap, but not by much.
"Recently my wife picked up something called “Oil Eater” � a cleaner
and degreaser � at the store. The label said it was very fast and
thorough. Ok fine, yeah, yeah, I have heard this before. "I first
tried it at a strength of 1 part Oil Eater to 100 parts water and
discovered to my amazement that a whole 5 gallon bucket of very dirty
slabs was cleaned in under 12 hours. I then tried 1 part Oil Eater to
50 parts water and found to my amazement that a 5 gallon bucket of
very oily slabs was cleaned in 6 hours. A mixture of 1 to 20 will
clean an oily slab in 2+ hours. The grease and oil form a fluffy
white substance that can be drained from the bucket. Not bad.
“Oil Eater is made by Kafko International in Illinois., Their phone
number is (800) 528-0334. The web site is www.kafkointl.com. It
comes in 1-gallon containers (white with a red label) or 5-gallon
pails. You can buy it at Costco or some automotive parts stores. Oil
Eater is also biodegradable and environmentally friendly.”
Contributed by Ray Ritchey in MOROKS 11/00.