This is where stone sculptors need to start. Safety. It isn't optional. Off gassing from stone, toxic minerals and components from grinding stone are all toxic and can be extremely hot when removed with diamond burrs and blades in both die and angle grinders. Always, always use full safety equipment and ventilate your working environment.

I've noticed that I may have been a little vague in the past regarding which air hammers I prefer and why. This video discusses my choices of both Cuturi and Trow & Holden.

This video takes a look at the tools that I utilize to refine the form closer to the sanding stage. This takes a look at the various grinding blades - a safer way to remove stone on the more fragile elements of this abstract.

If your stone starts jumpin' or gettin' nervous its time to bust out the super glue. This video takes a look at the various simple glues, superglues, epoxies, and mastics for stone.

Some folks have approached me and commented that they find it rather amazing that I can visualize a completed 3D sculpture in a raw block of stone. Like many skills, it is easy to master if you break the process into its component parts. This video starts showing you how to transpose a sketchbook drawing onto a rectangular block of Travertine from Iran.

After visualizing the form and rendering the image on each plane of the raw stone its time to remove the material that isn't the final sculpture. This video shows a manual and an air hammer method to remove fretted stone.

Well, we finally have the full set of burrs and the newly fabricated extension. This bad boy lets you blow deep into stone. You just get comfy, lean into it, and let the burrs do their thing. No problem with the extra kg of weight, it just adds to the grinding. The only one that binds a little is the cone point (A3) and; the only concern I have with that is the ability of the bearings in the grinder to handle that. This might be begging for a bigger grinder so long as you can retain the variable speed. The Metabo may shine over the Makita in this instance.

Basically, half a minute of your life that you will spend - and its unlikely you will be deeply enriched unless you have a rather well endowed shop full of tools. Hopefully it will provoke something - maybe a thought.

Well, we've had the brazed burr set for awhile now, and now we've got the sintered diamond burrs for your angle grinder. This clip is a short chat on the new burrs. Granite beware - we've got a new tool in town.

Seriously wicked grinding tool. Get it from Randy at Neolithic

Great gobs of overpriced art flooding the world today. I think there might be a link between artists being chronically underpaid, and thinking that high pricing of their work will somehow shift this paradigm.

It only takes a second to blast some air into a stone dust filled angle grinder, but it amazes me how few folks take the ten seconds to extend the life of their tools. Here's another maintenance video to give you an idea of a quick way to keep your tools spinning.

There are endless ways to finish stone. This video clip is a product review of a quick and effective way to seal a stone for outdoor or indoor use. Give it a look.

This is a bit of video that I shot on my latest rock trip with Dan from Chemainus. My 5 ton with its Hiab knuckleboom crane is an incredibly useful and faithful metal steed... sculptor's best friend?

This is a quick video showing how a reciprocating air file can be used with Italian hand rifflers. Any brazed burr that fits into a standard pneumatic die grinder can also be placed into the chuck of this little air file. Surprisingly versatile and reasonably priced.

This is an example of a mopsander in action sanding a piece of brucite. I've heard a great number of excuses lately, from stone sculptors who aren't taking the scratches out of polished areas - no excuse with a flexible mob sander on a die grinder!

These burrs are available from Neolithic stone in Vancouver. Check my link page. These burrs are magic on marble. Truly superb.

Carving stone exposes a sculptors tools to the incredible abrasive qualities of marble and granite dust. When this dust mixes with lubricants and water it can gum up and damage bearings, piston sleeves, and ruin expensive tools. This video demonstrates my method to quickly and efficiently clean sculptors air tools without trusting inexpensive and unreliable in line oilers to maintain tools.

This is the next installment in the travertine sculpture. It demonstrates a rotating stone sculpture stand that has a two ton capacity. As material is removed from the block, I show how the two dimensional layout will begin to transform into the final sculptural form. Sounds dry, but I hope it seems more informative than dry and hopelessly boring...

Dan and myself took our trucks to Northern Vancouver island to collect carvable stone. I have always believed that a stone sculptor needs to be able to spend material like it is endless - without concern to cost - Travelling up north allows me to acquire tons of stone for the cost of fuel. Happy like a kid in a candy store...

This really small tool has some big stature. Its really versatile in that it can carve with diamond burrs and sand with the addition of a velcro backed electroplated diamond sanding pad. It's cheap on air, and isn't hard on the wallet. Suprising value - and a well made piece of Japanese tooling.

What if an artist won a public art commission knowing that it was the only piece of public art that they would ever get? Interesting idea? Give it a boo!