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.
Attachment 5463

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.

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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

That's amazing and impressive.

I've just got to blow one up....

http://www.everlastgenerators.com/fo...achmentid=5497

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Originally Posted by Tritium

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

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Exactly! You are only the third to see the major flaw, most people read this as a diamond but don't know how one is cut to begin with. It's a pretty major flaw, and I knew it soon after, but then the project took on a life of its own. And lucky for me, Tolkowsky lists a section of incorrect diamond geometries in his manual, so I am chalking this up to a diamond that falls in that section. ha ha, I may come back again and try another one, but there's too many other projects on my list at the moment. Thanks for the link, I haven't checked this out until now. It's a great resource for the future.
Thanks again,
d.fisher

Thanks again jp, I haven't found where to post a large picture like that, is there a quick answer on the "how to?"

I don't know.

After you post the attachment, someone can click it to open it in another window (what I do), then copy the link and insert it between [IMG] tags, like http://www.linktosite.com/Picture12.jpg If that were a real link to a real picture, the URL would be replaced with a picture.

Once you figure out how to do one, the rest are super easy.

Also, images uploaded on here are only visible to other members. So, if you gave the link to your mother or brother, they would not see the images. If you want images visible to all, upload your images to someplace like www.photobucket.com or www.imgur.com (both are free). Then, you'd place your IMG tags with the links to your photos, like this one:

(NOTE: Hit "Reply With Quote" to see the code on how this was done.)

http://i.imgur.com/grA9Hl.jpg

Ok thanks again Jp, I'll try this in the future. Is that your motorcycle in the truck?

Yes it is.

In your 68 Chevy thread, I think that other guy left thinking my green pic of that Chevy truck was your end result. Ooops!

I've got an album here: http://jp2code.imgur.com/all/

Very impressive work, d. fisher! I like the "wood grain" look of the pine one.

I gotta say though, a version made out of welded, ground, and polished stainless steel sheetmetal would be possibly even cooler. :)

On a side note, does anyone know how real diamonds are "cut" or polished? I'm just curious. Given they are one of the hardest substances known to man, I can't think of any known abraisives that could get the job done without wearing out at least as fast as the diamond being polished. Are they fractured in a controlled manner somehow?

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Originally Posted by jp2code

Yes it is.

In your 68 Chevy thread, I think that other guy left thinking my green pic of that Chevy truck was your end result. Ooops!

I've got an album here: http://jp2code.imgur.com/all/

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no worries. hopefully some paint this summer will finish that 68 chevy thread out nicely! i checked out your album. you have some great looking machines in there. did you do the paint on your xr1200? it's a great looking motorcycle, and a solid restore on the nissan truck. it looks super clean from how you got it.

I gotta say though, a version made out of welded, ground, and polished stainless steel sheetmetal would be possibly even cooler. :)

On a side note, does anyone know how real diamonds are "cut" or polished? I'm just curious. Given they are one of the hardest substances known to man, I can't think of any known abraisives that could get the job done without wearing out at least as fast as the diamond being polished. Are they fractured in a controlled manner somehow?[/QUOTE]

thanks for the props jakeru. if you want to see some metal diamonds, do an image search of Jeff Koons. He has an army of workers to do exactly what you said. He paints his work afterward, but the stainless is first brought to mirror quality. they sometimes take a few years to complete depending on the sizes.

and regarding how the real diamonds are made, you are correct in your thinking. larger raw diamonds can first be fractured to create higher quality smaller diamonds. diamond sawblades and lasers also do rough cutting. in terms of faceting and polishing, diamonds are used to polish other diamonds. in the case of the diamonds doing the work, they are usually reserved as industrial quality and very small, sometimes grain like. if you check post #20 in this thread, Thurmond would be the man to ask. I only sort of know the process from being a jeweler, and don't actually do the real deal of cutting/faceting.

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Originally Posted by d.fisher

no worries. hopefully some paint this summer will finish that 68 chevy thread out nicely! i checked out your album. you have some great looking machines in there. did you do the paint on your xr1200? it's a great looking motorcycle, and a solid restore on the nissan truck. it looks super clean from how you got it.

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Hey, thanks! There is a long story on how the "XR" came to be painted that way. It is painted how I envisioned it, but I had no idea how to get that done. It was at a local paint & body shop scheduled to be painted blue because that was the only solid color I found that I liked. While waiting for paint, a carbon fiber scoop came in that was on back order, and I wanted to have the Harley-Davidson dealership paint it black to match the original. They gave me the name of this guy named Ben Beebe that did all of their painting. I took it to him, telling him what I *really* wanted. He took off with the idea, and said he really wanted a shot at doing that. He did all that for $800. I was amazed!

The Nissan Hardbody was my dads. He used it for 15 years in the oil field as a service truck, then retired it for a few years as a ranch vehicle for mending fence and feeding cattle. In 2001, a tornado hit my parents house, and a tree went through the truck's windshield. By the time he was finally to the point that he needed something new, the local dealerships would not accept it as trade - it was that bad. It is the rare 3/4-ton Heavy Duty truck, and I hated to see it go. So, I sold my Scion xB and used all of the sale of that vehicle to fix and repair the old Nissan. It still needs a few things, but it looks pretty close.

http://i.imgur.com/TyrVX.png