Project #4, Big Fake Diamonds, d.fisher

Here's pictures of two big fake diamonds I made in 2011. I followed an old Belgian diamond cutters manual, Diamond Design, by Marcel Tolkowsky, published in 1912. I was using his recommendations on geometry and proportions for "correct" cuts of modern brilliant round diamonds. In my attempts, this is what happened, they are not correct in form, but as a generic form, they still read as diamonds. One diamond is made from 1/2" mdf, and the other is made from 3/4" knotty pine plywood. Both are fabricated, hollow forms.

Here is the diamond on a table I also made, the diamond wasn't finished yet, it was bare mdf.
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That's very cool, what happened to the other pictures?

Sorry about that Jake, I had them on another computer. I'm on it now!

Here's a few shots of the fabrication. I started with the top of the diamond, called the table facet, and worked my way to the center. After that, I built the bottom half to fit the same diameter. It took several tries, and I think I got lucky as well.
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There is really no good way to clamp the facets together, so I used a ton of masking tape, and some small c-clamps at the top to keep everything in line. I used a polyurethane glue, so clamping pressure wasn't much of a concern either. I attached another close up of the base (one that was about 1/2" shy of the correct diameter) to show how it was started. The correct base is in the pic on the left, and in the background of the right pic.

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I know the inside isn't pretty, but I'm not ashamed! It's only what is on the outside that counts.

Here's a detail of the cross members installed in both the top and bottom halves. Notice the hole in the center of the intersection. This is to hook into a circle cutting jig I made for a bandsaw. It was the only way I could figure how to create a round diamond, without racking my brain even harder in the geometry.

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To make the diamond round, I had to fabricate a circle cutting jig for the wood bandsaw. I made an extra large support table, because it was just me at the time in the studio, and I didn't want anything to slip. The large table also enables up to 7 foot diameter circles to be cut. In this case, the diamond is about 42" in diameter. Notice the scalloped edge on the bottom half, that is what I am trimming off.

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Here's a detail of the locator pin. It serves as a point to revolve around. In this case, the center hole on the diamond's cross members from the earlier photos. I had to make a few tries at locating the pin just right, see the last photo, just before the cutting was done. I purchased the aluminum track for the jig, but had to fabricate everything else, including the mount for the center pin.

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Here's a before and after shot. The halves were located so that the cross members on each side matched up, and served as the main connection point. all that was left to do was fill in the side facets (girdle facets).

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Pretty neat looking.

What is the purpose?

nice project you built, some of the pictures aren`t showing,is the diamond all MFD or is that just a buck you built?

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Originally Posted by jp2code

Pretty neat looking.

What is the purpose?

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Hey Jp,
I am a part time sculptor, and some of the objects I like to make are based on engineering and old world designers (this one being Marcel Tolkowsky). This project, which will hopefully wind up in a gallery at some point, serves to keep my mind busy, and to also make attractive objects that other people will enjoy. I hope the viewer asks why I chose to make these works.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by charger891

nice project you built, some of the pictures aren`t showing,is the diamond all MFD or is that just a buck you built?

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Hey Charger,
Thanks for the compliments, this diamond is made from 1/2" mdf and for the most part is hollow, with only the inner cross members being pine. I have to resize the final pictures to upload on the thread. (They were taken as very large files). I hope this answers your question, I wasn't exactly sure what you meant by "buck".

Thanks for the reply, a buck is used for metalshaping, making panels on cars ect, its usually made of mfd or plywood to the shape you are looking for then you start bending and shaping the steel to match your buck.

Here's some final shots of the mdf diamond, with a satin polyurethane finish. I made the table specifically for the diamond for display purposes.

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How heavy is that? I wonder if anyone ever tried to steal it. LOL Looks like a gem from the photos.

I can pick up the diamonds without too much straining, they are more bulky and awkward to handle than they are heavy. If I had to guess, the mdf diamond might weigh about 60 lbs. I am about to load up two pictures of another diamond which was made from thicker plywood. That one might be about 80 lbs.

Hopefully there won't be any theft, it'd be hard to justify the value to my insurance! :)

And some more pics of the recently finished Knotty Pine Plywood diamond. I went through the same exact steps as the first. I even made templates for the mdf diamond in the beginning, so a lot of the work was much easier and faster.
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Ohh, that's right. I just never made a buck before, but that makes perfect sense. I guess this could be used for a base form. Great idea! I'll have to make a new one though, the finish on each diamond will surely be messed up when tacking up the sheets.
Thanks,
d.fisher

As a faceter and gem cutter I can say "close" but not quite. Those "sunken" facets would be impossible to cut but still it is pretty impressive art.

http://www.gemcutters.org

Thurmond