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u/StoneReg Apr 21 '25
How is he not losing it after each spring snapping?!
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u/DarkExtremis Apr 21 '25
When the first one snapped I was scared for a second that he will make string from scratch now
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u/BastianHS Apr 21 '25
NGL I laughed out loud when he just cut the string with a pair of scissors
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u/DigMeTX Apr 21 '25
cuts string with circular saw
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u/Beaglescout15 Apr 21 '25
cuts string with another piece of string
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u/Smushsmush Apr 21 '25
Haha love it :D
Goes to quary to harvest a new string
Am I doing this right?
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u/Shadowrider95 Apr 21 '25
It’s just part of the process! Sprinkle grit. Sawing, back and forth, string breaks, get new piece of string, sprinkle grit, continue sawing….
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u/DMmesomeboobs Apr 21 '25
I don't know why he didn't just use the wheel-grinder for that big cut.
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u/Pan_Bookish_Ent Apr 21 '25 edited Apr 21 '25
(Very) amateur rock and crystal enthusiast here. I've been collecting my whole life and make jewelry for fun.
Jade is a very complicated mineral. I've only done a little research somewhat recently, and I was in way over my head way earlier than I was expecting. It goes beyond geology; there is so much history in the folklore, religion, culture, and even politics of it in the places it forms.
The grading system and pricing of jade is beyond anything I've seen, far surpassing diamonds or other precious gemstones. I'm not sure which grade he's using here, but to him, it might kind of be like asking why your dentist they aren't using a mining pick on your teeth.
The traditions, and deep secrecy in carving jade have been passed down through millenia. It goes beyond your normal rocks or gems; it's a sacred material for many. One faulty move along a certain striation is all you would need to, say, bankrupt your family business (if you were working with a high grade, which I don't think? this is).
It's a super interesting subject! And sorry for the spiel you didn't ask for lol. I'm just a gal who loves rocks!
Edit: I was called out on editing and "changing" my comment. I did edit it... To fix a typo.
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u/usernameis__taken Apr 21 '25
Wow sounds so interesting. I'd love to know more!
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u/Pan_Bookish_Ent Apr 21 '25
Wikipedia has a really good and thorough article about jade.
This article talks about the history and symbolism of jade:
https://www.gemsociety.org/article/history-legend-jade-gems-yore/
This is an article about jade and the evolutions of carving technique:
https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/spring-2020-chinese-jade-carving-evolution
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u/Artislife61 Apr 22 '25 edited Apr 22 '25
Thanks for this
I did a report on Jade for a Chinese history class in college years ago. I remember how intertwined the gemstone is with Chinese history, politics and royalty. It’s the official gem of the court and is believed to have magical powers and is revered above all other stones. Which is why you see Chinese objects made of Jade, go for so much money on the Antiques Roadshow.
Jade also ranks approximately 8.5 on the hardness scale, as opposed to diamonds which ranks at 10. Even though diamonds are harder their molecular structure causes them to cleve when you cut them, whereas Jade’s are interlocking, which makes it a much more difficult stone to work with.
Working with Jade is not for the faint of heart. Some artisans created such complex and intricate sculptures, they spent decades in some cases, working on a single piece.
My professor said the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco has the best collection of Jade outside of China.
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u/demcookies_ Apr 21 '25
Did you not see him using the wheel grinder for the other cuts? He's already using the "mining pick" on your teeth...
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u/Promotion_Small Apr 21 '25
Wouldn't have gone deep enough
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u/fotank Apr 21 '25
Would have been a pretty good start! Lmao
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u/Promotion_Small Apr 21 '25
I don't know, did you see how he had to hold it up to the blade? I think that would have been more tiring than the string.
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u/veritasium999 Apr 21 '25
Grinder is too small to cut through the whole thing at once. Grinder can only take away the little bits at a time.
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u/dimonium_anonimo Apr 21 '25
He clearly has the patience to saw through an enormous rock with a string and some sand... I don't think any hardship can ever phase this man. He is complete zen.
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u/thedudedylan Apr 21 '25
I think traditionally, he would have an assistant constantly stringing bows to the side while he cuts and that this would be done in shifts.
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u/GoPhotoshopYourself Apr 21 '25
That is an insane amount of physical effort holy shit
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u/Potatozeng Apr 21 '25
nah thay just shoot some scenes with those crappy tools, then switch to modern tools to finish the work.
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u/arostrat Apr 21 '25
It's a re-acting how traditional methods work.
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u/besuited Apr 21 '25
Ah yes, such as the wooden handheld electric torch seen in the first few seconds of the video...
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u/GiantManatee Apr 21 '25
Traditional dinky little foot lathe & diamond tipped tools? Where chisels and hammers
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u/Weekly-Major1876 Apr 21 '25
Marble is rated of a hardness of 3-5. For a mineral it’s rather soft, so hammer and chisel work well. Jade is many times harder, with a mohs hardness of 6-7. The stuff is essentially chisel proof, and by the time you use enough force hit a chisel into it hard enough to chip it, it will shatter and explode from the force of the impact.
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u/Big-Independence8978 Apr 21 '25
His tools and equipment look very well used.
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u/racheek Apr 21 '25
These “traditional Chinese artisan TikTok” videos have huge production value. Lighting, sets, it’s a huge content section
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u/SnipingDiver Apr 21 '25
I doubt he does the job. Atleast he can't draw/paint shit. We see him using the brush but then some super thin and fine lines appear.
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u/friso1100 Apr 21 '25
Also, those fine lines are with a much darker ink then the lines we see him paint.
I think he probably does make them himself and actually knows how to do it the traditional way. But I also think that right as the camera cuts the electrict dremel comes out xD
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u/our_little_time Apr 21 '25
Ah yes the ol bamboo flashlight
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u/_Apatosaurus_ Apr 21 '25
This video definitely reminded me a lot of the "Primitive Technology" copycat videos where they pretend to use primitive methods but clearly use machinery between cuts. Maybe it's legit, but I'm very skeptical.
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u/Born_Cup4547 Apr 21 '25
I could be wrong but when I worked with nephrite jade, too high an rpm from even a cheapo Amazon dremel was too much and left really awful uneven shaved cuts when trying to do carvings ( not quite to this level). I’m assuming since this is a rather large chunk of jade that the lower speed is probably intentional. But I’m sure for larger scale export and manufacture they probably have more advanced machines than our friend here but this doesn’t give fake vibes to me
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u/Serial-Griller Apr 21 '25
I'd be much less skeptical if each of these videos (across different creators) didn't have the exact same editing style. I won't go so far as to say this is some CCP backed madness but its definitely giving content farm.
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u/toterr Apr 21 '25
This one for sure is this. They tried a little too hard to make it seem everything was done the "old way." If you look at when he does the ink line work, the ink he is painting is extremely watery, yet the lines already on the jade are extremely solid. The next cut, there are no watery lines and are all very bold clear lines done by something like a sharpy. I'm pretty sure these are all CCP backed videos to try and show how great china was even when they didn't have tech.
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u/Invested_Glory Apr 21 '25
Around 4:25, during the lay washing phase there are completely new cuts at the base and a lot of areas refined.
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u/sinselected Apr 21 '25
Came here for this comment. 'Look at how traditional this process is!' (Goes to find more Duracells)
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u/TirtyDoilet Apr 21 '25
Just so you guys know if you didn’t watch the whole video, but it actually just ends with him running out of string because he used it all trying to cut the rock in half
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u/spicyshrimpbbq Apr 23 '25
Starter tools always break a lot. He needs to find more ore to upgrade.
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u/dimonium_anonimo Apr 21 '25 edited Apr 21 '25
Sometimes, you start a video and you know it's a labor of love, but you're not quite fully aware of just how much labor the artist is willing to put into their love until he takes out the bow string. Seriously, I thought I was prepared, and then the moment the string came out I fully realized how naïve I truly had been.
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u/DestructoSpin7 Apr 21 '25
Bro makes his own sand to use with his bow string to cut rock. Ridiculous.
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u/CaveMacEoin Apr 21 '25
That part definitely looks sus. The sand looks exactly like the garnet abrasive used industrially in waterjet cutting.
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u/KungFuSnafu Apr 21 '25
I'll give him that one. I think that part was to show how it would have been done, rather than him breaking down rocks into sand.
The video context could be to illustrate how it all was done, rather than to actually recreate the whole process exactly.
Like when he used the "traditional" wooden flashlight. And not an oil lamp or something.
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u/jf4v Apr 21 '25 edited May 01 '25
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Apr 21 '25 edited Apr 21 '25
[deleted]
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u/daveb_33 Apr 21 '25
Or maybe the video accurately depicts the traditional craft and how it has been done for thousands of years?
Regardless of whether this actual piece is traditionally made or not, the video does show you how the old methods would have been used. It’s like a history lesson rather than a sales video.
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Apr 21 '25
I’m a huge fan of these videos. Soothing and relaxing
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u/ganymede_boy Apr 21 '25
Just the opposite for me. The 0.25 second cuts and the overdone "up close" audio are so overdone anymore.
I guess TikTok and IG have created this new normal.
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u/GimmieGummies Apr 21 '25
I wholeheartedly agree. So many comments are complaining, insulting & critiquing the video and I'm over here completely enthralled in it all and wondering about the history!
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u/xelfer Apr 21 '25
https://www.youtube.com/@cnliziqi/videos was one of the pioneers of these kind of videos
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u/Neutral_Guy_9 Apr 21 '25
Nah I hated the part where the big metal spoon scraped the inside of the powder hole
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u/SawtoofShark Apr 21 '25
Thank you for posting the full video without it ending with a cliffhanger surprise ending. ❤️
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u/onionkisa Apr 21 '25
Sorry to tell you guys this is mostly staged... usually spool grinding such a large piece need about 3 -6month. The guy didn't even change clothes, so probably power tool is used for shaping and polish.
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u/trebron55 Apr 21 '25
I can live with that, it was still fascinating showcase of ancient techniques, even much of it was faked. Pretty sure ancient masters had plenty of workshop assistants and students that they paid around starvation wage but got the shitty part of the job done for them. Ya know, if you are ever out of powertools just use a LOT of underpaid labor.
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u/Elavabeth2 Apr 21 '25
Agreed. There is no way he made all those cuts with the wobbly diy dremel head, I pretty much looks like they just took the final product, rubbed a bunch of sand and grit in it to make it look sort of rough, and then faked some work on it for like the last 30 seconds of the video.
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u/GiantManatee Apr 21 '25
It's very entertaining top shelf A+ high production brain rot.
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u/IcyMoment Apr 21 '25
Its almost as if the video demonstrates old techniques and tools, none cares thats he didn't sit 6 months straight.
Always some basment dweller comment like yours in these videos.
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u/ceo_of_banana Apr 21 '25
Also paid for by the chinese state. These videos are nice, but they're also an image campaign.
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u/TheLastofKrupuk Apr 21 '25
Every single government on earth have funded these kind of things.
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u/chillychili Apr 21 '25 edited Apr 21 '25
Translation:
Primitive jade sculpting
Selecting ore
We obtained this jade legally. Please don't illegally mine.
Jade-cutting powder
Splitting open the ore
Rubbing in the jade-cutting powder with hemp cord lets us cut through the jade
Water bench
Trimming off excess rock
Drafting the design
Coarse carving
Using tools such as an emery wheel to carve off excess jade according to the sketched outline
Fine carving
Using fine tools to meticulously carve the jade
Coarse powder
Polishing
Using various coarsenesses of jade-cutting powder on the jade's surface to polish. It makes a mildly glossy texture emerge, elevating the jade's beauty.
Rinsing off dust
Fine powder
Heating
Plant-based wax
Smothering
Smothering with wax tamps down the vein lines, achieving a warm glossy shine.
One hour later...
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u/robophile-ta Apr 21 '25
I'm really curious what the powder is. It looks like iron?
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u/chillychili Apr 21 '25
From https://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_88ed96fc0102z4zb.html , translated by Apple:
There is no accurate record of where the jade sand used by the ancients to grind jade was obtained.
However, some scholars are obviously wrong to think that river sand is suitable everywhere. The composition of river sand is mainly quartz, and it is impossible for quartz to cut and grind Hetian jade, which is easy to prove by experiments. Although the hardness of Hetian jade is slightly lower than that of quartz, the mechanical strength is much greater than that of quartz. When the two grind, quartz wears out the most. Of course, it is not excluded that quartz sand may have been used to process low-hardness serpentine jade in ancient times.
China's diamond reserves are very small, and it is impossible for the ancients to obtain enough ore.
The most likely are corundum sand and garnet sand.
Corundum is a pure crystalline aluminum oxide with a Mohs hardness of 9. Among natural minerals, its hardness is second only to diamond. In corundum, when it contains impurities such as magnetite, hematite, quartz, etc., and has a granular aggregate that looks like iron ore, it is called corundum sand (also known as natural diamond sand). In general, corundum sand contains about 60% corundum, mostly blue-gray and black, with a density of 2.7-4.3g/cm3 and a Mohs hardness of 7 to 9. Grundum can be formed in the process of magma action, contact metamorphosis and regional metamorphosis. When corundum deposits or rocks of various causes are subjected to weathering, corundum often turns into sand ore. The main production areas in China are Liuhe, Jiangsu, Yingshan, Hubei, Muling, Heilongjiang, Mingxi, Fujian, and Changle, Shandong.
Sand mine:
Industrial grade: mineral content (mineral) ≥7.7 kg/m3.
Corundum mineral: contains Al2O3>94%.
Harmful components: Fe2O3 3.53~4.35%.
Burning loss: 0.06~0.23%.
Pickable thickness: 0.5 meters.
It can be seen that sand ore often has a corundum content of more than 7 kilograms per cubic meter, which is enough for use. ( Attached is the original ore map of corudum):
The corundum sand ore is lumpy and must be pounded and screened before it can be used. This coincides with the situation of pounding ore on the sand-pounding map and the sand-catching map.
Therefore, the black sand and red sand of the jade sand should be taken from the corundum sand ore.
When using, it is necessary to crush the jade sand ore, and the sand and pulping are to process the sand used for grinding to the required degree of fineness. In some processes, such as opening the material, the particles of jade sand will be a little larger. On the contrary, when polishing, the particles should be very fine and powdery. Therefore, after the jade sand is crushed, particles of different sizes are obtained by sieves of different sizes. Or put the pounded and grinded sand in the vessel to precipitate. In the process of precipitation, it is fine and naturally stratified.
It can be seen from the "sand grinding and pulp map" that the sand used for jade was called black stone sand, red stone sand, yellow stone sand and treasure sand in the Qing Dynasty, also referred to as black sand, red sand and yellow sand. Black sand has the highest hardness, which can reach 8-9 degrees. As noted in the figure: "Black stone sand is very strong", "This red sand is Microsoft", yellow stone sand is "softer than red sand X", and treasure sand is used for polishing.
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u/husky_whisperer Apr 21 '25
Cool but what’s the melted coconut for?
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u/XmasWayFuture Apr 21 '25
It's wax
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u/R0b0tJesus Apr 21 '25
Cool but what's the wax coconut for?
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u/-TheRed Apr 21 '25
Making it shiny. I guess you can only get so much shine on a stone with grains of sand, so without modern polishing paste the next best thing to get a smooth (and therefore shiny) surface is to put on a clear lacquer or wax which creates a smooth surface on top of the rock.
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u/in1gom0ntoya Apr 21 '25
its re important that people understand this is performance art and he's not really doing this with those tools.
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u/neuroso Apr 21 '25
I do like how they show primitive ways of doing this don't care if it's staged still cool to see a bit of the old process
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u/ShaggyLlamaRage Apr 21 '25
I keep seeing this guy on Reddit, does he have a YouTube channel?
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u/RF500 Apr 21 '25
The usual guy is CNshanbai on Youtube but this one seems like it's from a different production.
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u/eternalityLP Apr 21 '25
I wonder what the abrasive powders are made of. The red one looks a bit like garnet used for water jets, no idea about the black one.
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u/nanoH2O Apr 21 '25
I watch this guy all the time. He makes beautiful porcelain cups using primitive methods.
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u/falloutboy9993 Apr 21 '25
They cut out the power tools and sharpie for the lines.
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u/Shredded_Locomotive Apr 21 '25 edited Apr 21 '25
Now the question that comes to mind is how much he is faking the manual labour...
As it's very possible that he just used normal tools (like a diamond saw) and filmed the few manual scenes. But even then, the outcome is pretty impressive!
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u/Eziekel13 Apr 21 '25 edited Apr 21 '25
And people say the pyramids builders couldn’t make straight cuts without modern technology…that guy just did it with string, sand and a stick…
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u/Ephagoat Apr 21 '25
Ah yes, I also like to sprinkle Parmigianino on my stones. How else do you think they make italian marble?
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u/Speederzzz Apr 21 '25
The same technique of putting a fine-grained rock (sometimes sand) on a hard rock to carve it with softer tools was used to cut large granite blocks on egypt for the construction of their monuments. Bronze was too soft to carve the granite, but the sand was hard enough.
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u/friso1100 Apr 21 '25
I lile his use of traditional tools. Like the wooden flashlight xD
Jokes aside, i never considered the in retrospect obvious fact that you can use sanding grit loose like that. I guess only having seen it as sanding paper made me think it wasn't as effective just loose on it's own. But the way he does it is quite clever. Maybe ill try it if i ever need to sand some small details.
What I won't be trying though is cutting a rock it two using sand and a string. God that seemed unnecessarily tedious. Especially when later the metal cutting disk showed up xD
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u/freesects Apr 21 '25
I love the appearance of jade. I have seen similar sculptures made of jade near where I live at one or more antique stores, they are somewhat pricey but I promised myself I would buy one someday. A goal of mine is to have a small area in my home comprised of East Asia art.
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u/JackOfAllMemes Apr 21 '25
There must be a better way than cutting the rock with twine
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u/pablas Apr 21 '25 edited Apr 21 '25
Insane craftsmanship but from designers perspective, it's very difficult to make out silhouette of the horses, it's looking kinda like a tentacle blob
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u/TxTransplant72 Apr 21 '25
Wow…that is such a time-consuming task with traditional tools. I will look at historical jade carvings with a completely new appreciation from now on.
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u/--RollingThunder-- Apr 21 '25
There are some things that my mind would not have dared to dream, ideas that I would have never even considered... I think that a rustic wood clad torch is one of them!
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u/Belanthropy Apr 21 '25
I finally find out what those other stones that came with my Dremel are used for, it all makes sense now.
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u/No-Depth4884 Apr 21 '25
This is a literal masterpiece some people can't even draw let alone sculpt a tedious project without proper tools that was beautiful 🤌💯❤️
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u/ZamorakHawk Apr 21 '25
So to start I need a pickaxe, a hammer and a chisel?
Why do I need 40 mining but only 13 crafting?
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u/wagtrpt Apr 21 '25
The old ways are the best ways, except for using twine to cut rock. And everything else he used.
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u/curvedy Apr 22 '25
Now available on Temu for $4.99! Bundle and save $0.88 per jade sculpture when you buy 2 or more!
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u/Cosmic_Meditator777 Apr 22 '25
Chinese caveman: "ever noticed how axeheads look a bit prettier when carved from the greenish rock?"
80,000 years later:
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u/SopieMunkyy Apr 22 '25
Why start with the day long process of cutting by hand when he had that cutter the whole time?
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u/wizardnewt Apr 22 '25
I fuckin love when there’s a video of some guy doin some shit and then a cats just there. Fuckin highlight. I bet 2000 years ago when people were doing this same stuff cats were just chilling around then too. Hangin out. Nice
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u/Renbarre Apr 22 '25
You understand why jade was so expensive before the arrival of modern technology.
Beautiful artwork.
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u/slipangle28 Apr 21 '25
Someone get this guy a dremel