I have recently started trying to carve a pommel and guard from machinist wax and it is proving to be quite difficult. The design is herugrim from the lord of the rings, I have tried to cave it with some tools I bought made to carve wax but it just takes forever. I was wondering should I be using a dremel or a softer type of wax, everything I have read said to use the bluish style wax but its pretty tough to hand carve. Any help would be awesome.

Thanks

John

Your most important tool is... patience.

Machinist's wax is more like plastic than wax, so yes, it is harder and tougher, yet easier to work with given appropriate tools and techniques. You do not describe your tools, so I'm not sure what you're using, but you can saw and file away the bulk of unneeded material - files will actually be used for a majority of the work, and this should progress rather quickly. I would only start actual carving in those places where you have irregular shapes and details (the scrollwork in this instance). You can lay out your pattern right on the piece as a guide using permanent markers.

Sandpaper or emery cloth can also be used for shaping and finish work, just as you would on other materials, gradually using finer grits. To eliminate scratches or smooth things over you can use a fine cloth and some lighter fluid.

Howard Waddell of Albion posted some photos of Peter Johnsson's carving the wax for the guard and pommel casting on the Valkyrja. You might be able to get some ideas from that thread:
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...ax+carving
Doesn't look like a really quick way to do it, just slow, steady, and accurate.

If you are getting into wax carving, I would highly recommend the Kate Wolf wax carving tools; they are the best. As a matter of fact, any product with her name or logo on it is great; she designs tools specifically for metalwork/jewelry applications, as many tools on the market today are not designed specifically with metalwork in mind.

http://www.riogrande.com/MemberArea/SearchPag...ving+Tools

Thanks for all the replys. Espicially the reply from RD, it showed me that it could actually be done and the tools I was using were for more like clay then wax although they said wax carvers on them. I modified them to be more of a scraper and it worked really well. Thanks once again.

John