If you were given a piece of jadeite raw stone, how would you cut it?

The jadeite you see on the market is all carefully crafted. From raw materials to finished products, the cutting and production process is like a complex and precise operation. Any mistake will ruin a good piece of jade. China has a long history of using jade, and has unique techniques and skills in cutting and carving.

Generally speaking, when we get a piece of jadeite raw stone, the first step is not to cut it immediately, but to observe it carefully, which is called "material inspection". The internal condition of the raw stone is analyzed by lighting to determine how the next processing will proceed.

After the observation, the first cut should be made to slice the stone. The first cut is very critical. If you don’t cut it well, you will experience the despair of losing hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in a second. Generally, if there are cracks on the original stone, it should be cut along the grain. Or you can cut from the edge, from the bottom, or from the loose part. The specific situation still needs to be tailored to the materials and specific analysis should be done on specific issues.

There are two relatively primitive cutting methods. One is to use a bow saw to press the sand and slowly saw the stone. The second is wire drawing (wire saw), which uses iron wire or corundum as abrasive, adds water to cool it, and pulls it back and forth to loosen the jade. The advantages of these two methods are that damage to the quality of the raw materials can be minimized and there is no waste. The disadvantage is that it is too slow.

Another cutting method is cutting with a machine. The traditional one is a foot-operated material-cutting machine, which has a round iron lead copper plate, a rotating shaft, and a belt or adhesive tape. The rotating shaft is driven by a foot pedal, and corundum is continuously added to slowly cut the jadeite. Nowadays, electric jade cutting machines are generally used. The cutting blades are coated with a layer of diamond sand, which makes the cutting accurate and fast.

After the first cut, you will have a clearer understanding of the color, crack distribution, water head, etc. of the jade material, and you can start preparing for slicing. The material is usually cut from the worst part so that the loss will not be too great. Based on the principle of not destroying the environment, the finished product should be made as large as possible.

After the material is cut, it needs to be polished, ground and carved according to different needs. Next, a variety of beautiful jade jewelry will appear.

Do you think it’s magical after watching it? From raw stone to finished product, each piece of jade must go through many complex processes while maintaining its original quality as much as possible before it can become the jade handicrafts we see on the market. So everyone should cherish their jade. They may look small, but they have gone through a lot of cuts and it is not easy for them to come to you.

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