How to Carve Fluorite Tips

Practice carving plaster first. Make a cardboard box 4 inches by 4 inches by 2 inches deep. Use the tape to hold the sides together. Mix and pour plaster into the box. Allow the plaster to cure. Remove the box. Grasp your carving gouges and hammer. Use all your tools, and develop different techniques. Carving is an art, not a science. No hard and fast rules exist. Practicing on plaster first gives you a good "feel" for carving fluorite.

Examine your fluorite specimen closely. Look for the cleavage lines. Cleavage lines are visible through the stone, almost looking like a glue line where two pieces of stone have been joined together. Cleavage lines are naturally weak points in the rock. If you hit a cleavage line just right, it will break along the line. Glendale Community College states if you break the stone at the cleavage lines, octahedrons can be formed.

Use hand tools only on fluorite. Stone carver Marc Levoy at Stanford University prefers using hand tools over pneumatic tools to carve stone. Fluorite is a delicate stone and power tools are not recommended. Fluorite may shatter under the harsh pounding.

Place your fluorite block on a solid surface. Grasp your carving tools and begin sculpting on the fluorite. Sand with fine sandpaper to achieve a smooth surface. Polish with a polishing compound and a soft rag to achieve a shiny surface.