How to Carve Using Marble Stone

Marble has been a traditional carving stone for centuries and remains a favorite today. Marble is an example of metamorphic rock, a soft stone to carve. The colors widely vary depending on what part of the world it comes from. One of the well known characteristics of marble is the ability to provide a very glossy shine.

Things You'll Need

• Clear paste wax
• Rubber gloves
• Soft cloth
• Hammer
• Sandbags
• Points
• Ear plugs
• Drill
• Sandpaper
• Dust mask
• Marble slab
• Chisels
• Grinder saw
• Pencil or crayon
• Rasps
• Pitcher
• Work gloves
• Goggles
• Oxalic acid
• Claws

Instructions

Carve a Sculpture Using Marble Stone

1. Put on eye goggles, ear plugs and a dust mask before you begin to carve. This paraphernalia protects your health and hearing as you work. Heavy work gloves are recommended to avoid cutting your hands on shards of marble.

2. Determine the direction of the grain, or bed, of your stone. The composition of marble, a metamorphic rock, is layer upon layer. The layering makes it easy to find the grain. It looks similar to the grain in a piece of wood.

3. Mark the area of stone that you will not be using. Use a pencil or crayon to avoid bleeding ink into the marble.

4. Use sandbags to absorb vibrations when using a hammer or drill on your stone. Place them underneath the marble.

5. Discard large portions of stone that you do not want. One way to perform this function is with a grinder using a diamond blade. An alternative is to drill a hole in the middle of the unwanted area, then use a pitcher and hammer to break off the stone.

6. Define the shape you want the marble to take with a point chisel. Hold it at a 45-degree angle as you hit it with the hammer.

7. Follow the point with tools with teeth such as claws and tooth chisels. This defines the shape further and will start to smooth out the marble.

8. Smooth the marks left by the toothed implements with rasps and files, also called rifflers. Because marble is a soft stone, a lot of the detailed carving work can be done with files.

9. Sand your marble sculpture with numerous grades of wet/dry sand paper. Begin with the coarsest grade first--usually 120 or 150--and gradually use finer grades until you are satisfied with the quality of shine. This step is very labor intensive, as you may use up to 3000 grade paper.

10. Let your marble sculpture dry after sanding.

11. Put on rubber gloves and dissolve oxalic acid into warm water. You can find oxalic acid at the drugstore.

12. Dip a piece of felt into the oxalic acid and rub onto the sculpture. This seals the marble and serves to protect it from staining.

13. Wait a few minutes after applying the oxalic acid, then wash it off the marble.

14. Wax your sculpture with a clear paste wax, buffing it to a high polish with a soft cloth.

Tips & Warnings

• Be sure the change the water with each grade of sand paper you use, to avoid scratching your sculpture with remnants of the previous paper.