Surgery Drill Bits?

This is a subject that must be dealt with. It makes perfect sense that an artist would want to use these tools. They basically "fell into my lap". 

They are hardened carbide steel drill bits and diamond coated burs, once used to drill through bone in neuro-surgical cases. Also, the 2 drills that I use are the, since discarded, precision instruments once used by a team of Neurosurgeons at Johns Hopkins Hospital. That's right, I own two Aesculap, ELAN-E drills.

These drills have electric motors, are foot pedal operated and have flexible shafts. I also have all the various attachments. They were replaced by a series of drills which are "high-tech" computerized. These electronic drills are the wave of the future, but are they better than the old ELAN-E's? What I like about the ELAN-E, is how it builds up speed as to place your foot on the pedal. It builds up inertia. As you press harder into the work, it slows down due to natural forces. You can feel it work. The new electronic drills simply spin at the computer controlled programmed speed.

Dr. Ben Carson has told me that he misses "the feel of his old ELAN -E drills". 

Here's the bad part. It's when people think about this for a bit. They screw up their eyes and ask" so these tools were used in brain surgery, right?". And now you use them in your garage to do marble sculpting and carve portraits of the doctors you work with in stone? Does that makes sense? So I have to explain, these tools are easily the most precise, highest quality instruments available to anyone in the world. I love using these tools. I don't want to do my art any other way. This is the kind of drill that an artist would use. I can't imagine working with stone any other way. "I drill stone." 

I don't use the drills the way you might think. I dont stick the drill bit straight into the stone like a regular drill bit. I use the drill bits the way I learned from my mentors - neurosurgeons. These are all side-cutting burs. They cut and shape bone by spinning the blades on the side of the drill bit into the bone in a very controlled manner. I would watch these doctors for hours. they are "bone sculptors". Through watching them as artists, I became inspired and empowered to pursue art in my own way. 

I've yet to actually meet a marble sculpting artist. I have met, however, some of the hardest working, most brilliant people out there. They are my teachers and mentors.