[kitaye]

I want to make a gift for my spouse and was thinking a heart pendant with an inset of Tagua Nut. I ordered the nuts and when they arrived experimented with my regular carving blades. These things are hard as rocks. I could barely scrape the brown off the outside of the thing.

Now, I have no idea how to proceed. Is tagua nut stepping beyond my abilities at this point? Or, do I just need special tools for working it?

Any advice is appreciated.

[BobD]

A lot of people power carve them...I know Sue Walters of Australia (the woodburner) has made some lovely pieces out of Tagua nuts that she power-carved and then burned...

Bob

[Colin_Partridge]

I have done a few the only way to carve them is power. I prefer to burn them. Firstly though you have to have someone cut them or slice them with a scroll saw. The way I sliced mine was to carve out a piece of scrap bass wood until the nut fits snug into the hole. Chisel out about half of the nut. Then slice the wood and nut together. Be very careful and use a mold, slicing them without one could cost you a finger.
Colin

[Robert Cahill]

soaking them in water helps some

[kitaye]

I tried using my scroll saw to slice the nut today. I forgot to soak it in water first but figured I'd try it anyway. Wow, is that stuff hard. Anyway, while cutting it it got to hot and turned brown in a 1/4 " spot about centre of my cut. Can this be buffed out or is it ruined?

If this piece is ruined then I'm soaking the rest of the nut in water before I try slicing it again.

[Robert Cahill]

It's been a while since I worked with Tagua nuts but if I recall correctly you can sand the burn marks off. I think one of the carving magazines had an article once on them but I can't remember what issue.

[kitaye]

Thanks Robert. I'll try buffing it out. It's all a learning experience for me.

[Robert Cahill]

I just put tagua nut carving in the google search engine and it came up with a little example for carving them

[kitaye]

Doh! I've spent so many hours trying to find information on google and yahoo but I never thought to look up anything on tagua nuts. I'll check it out before I do anything irreversible.

[Thomp]

check on the sister forum scroll saw illustrated, look at the left here and fine the link,

couple years ago i was a regular member there, and remember them discussing them nuts, i think it was the user gill...