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Post by 1dave on Oct 11, 2020 19:17:18 GMT -7
Let's talk about Metalsmithing! 1st, there are some excellent books out there.
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Post by 1dave on Oct 11, 2020 19:18:22 GMT -7
2nd, a workbench comes in handy. Perhaps you just need something for beading or engraving, but hobbies have a tendency to grow into other areas. Prepare for the future if you can. It would be good to add some holes to insert special tools. Bench Tools And if you are producing precious metal filings, a pre-streched Canvas easily slid out can save big $!
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Post by 1dave on Oct 11, 2020 19:19:16 GMT -7
3- Refining Silver: There are many silversmiths around and their scrap comes up for sale from time to time. What to do with it? Pick out the pieces that are still "Sterling." The safest thing to do with the rest which is mixed with solder is to refine it.
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Post by 1dave on Oct 11, 2020 19:19:57 GMT -7
4 - Making Plate: I had the good fortune to know Jay Bee Bown, the inventor of the Garnet Block. Here is his description of the process:
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Post by 1dave on Oct 11, 2020 19:20:41 GMT -7
5 - Working Wire: I've found it advantageous to own numerous Draw Plates and a pair of draw tongs. They come in all kinds of shapes, round, half round, square, triangle, heart, etc. That allows you to buy a few large gauge wires, then draw them down to the diameter and shape you want later on. Also you can twist or braid small wire and pull it through a half round DP for interesting ring shanks, etc. Really interesting is to twist together silver and copper wire, pull through a square DP for bending into name pins. Specialty pliers are available at jewelry supply stores AND at orthodontic supply houses. There are lots of bending jigs available: Which allows you to make names, And all kinds of neat stuff! Imagine displaying your tumbled stones in this!
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Post by 1dave on Oct 11, 2020 19:21:25 GMT -7
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Post by 1dave on Oct 11, 2020 19:22:05 GMT -7
7 - Casting Is well covered in Sharr Choate's book. Dripping melted silver into water, ice, wet pine needles or broom straws provide interesting shapes to work with! For Lost Wax Casting you will need a centrifuge and metal wash tub to keep gold from flying everywhere! I make my forms out of copper pipe to fill with cristobalite and my wax mold, but you will need to purchase Crucibles to melt your metal in: Don't toss that empty propane tank! Open the valve all the way and heat that tank to drive all the gas out. Do it several times, then close the valve while still HOT! When it cools down, you will be the proud owner of a vacuum casting unit! Make your mold with a hole in the bottom the nozzle will fit in, Burn out the wax, melt metal on top of the mold, then stick the nozzle in place and open the valve. The vacuum will help suck the molten metal down into the mold.
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Post by 1dave on Oct 11, 2020 19:22:46 GMT -7
8 - Fabrication again is well covered by Sharr Choate's book on "Creative Gold and Silversmithing." I watched Don Black make jewelry many years ago at the Spencer Precious Opal Mine in Idaho and was amazed at how few (and large) tools he used to make masterpieces. This will do for most projects:
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Post by 1dave on Oct 11, 2020 19:23:36 GMT -7
10 Electroplating is another way to "clean" your silver. Toss the scrap in one end, pure silver on the other, and attach a 9 volt battery. [img alt="Electroplating" style="max-width:100%;" src="http://www.rocktumblinghobby.com/pb/1dave/E
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Post by 1dave on Oct 11, 2020 19:24:56 GMT -7
Time for a mind meld
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Post by 1dave on Oct 11, 2020 19:26:04 GMT -7
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Post by 1dave on Oct 11, 2020 19:27:17 GMT -7
You seem to be a very experimented metalsmith, to say the least. May we see your creations please? Adrian Hi Adrian, Always a pleasure to hear from you! All my metalworking was done in the 60's. from the 70's on I was driving over a 100 miles to work and another 100 back after 10-12 hour days on powerhouses trying to support 7 daughters - keeping the wolf away from the door. As I have mentioned before, I made all my money by buying high and giving stuff away to my friends. When my Mom was killed in a car wreck, I gave all the jewelry I had made for her to other relatives. My wife is not a jewelry person, so . . . For at least 20 years my stuff was in storage. When we moved here in 2000 everything was piled into the separate garage and workshop out back, to which I have added two extensions. Like you, I'm still putting my shop together, but I'm a lot slower than you are. I did build a "rock-case" and filled with the best of my collection and gave it to my granddaughter's school. You can read about it here: www.mindat.org/article.php/1359/A+School+Rock+Cabinet+Dave
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Post by 1dave on Oct 11, 2020 19:28:33 GMT -7
Thanks for posting all the information! I spent 3 months of Saturdays last year with a metalsmith in her studio trying to learn and ended up with a shop full of gear and little idea how to use it. She went straight to getting creative and skipped all the basics so even though I can solder wire I don't have a good handle on laying out basic designs and making them work. I need to spend a little time in the shop and play with some silver wire to see if I can set a cab and go from there, having a dedicated section on here would be nice, so folks like me could crawl before we walk and go through the same bottom-up learning we do with rocks, and get folks help along the way. That said, people will already help with anything we ask about just because that's the kind of place this is - I think a metalsmithing section would just make it easier for others to find information. You are welcome. Silversmithing is a simple subject. I once brought some mate4rial out to the powerhouse I was working on and coached a fellow electrician through the process of making a ring. That was all he needed and he has been making fine creations ever since. 1. Bend a piece of bezel around the cabochon and cut it to fit. Clamp it between two Popsicle sticks and file off the top with a course file to produce a serrated edge, then solder it together with high temperature solder. Melt ends of silver wire to make berries, use chisel to shape silver scrap into leaves. 2. Arrange all of the above on a sheet of plate the way you like it with snippets of medium solder under the pieces. Heat it from underneath. Solder follows heat! 3. Bend half round silver wire around an iron worker's drift pin or ring mandrel to the size you want. File the two ends flat and set on top of the upside down piece you just made with low temp solder between. A wet towel as a heat sink will protect your previous work. Heat from the top and watch the shank sink down into place and remove the heat. Clean in pickling solution, dry - possibly paint parts with egg white to turn it black and bring out the pattern. 4. Drop the cabochon into place and bend the bezel around it with a burnisher. 5. Put your creativity into high gear. Dave
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Post by 1dave on Oct 11, 2020 19:29:39 GMT -7
Tufa = limestone, travertine; but Eric Begay wrote: So it sounds to me more like pumice. I believe the word "tufa" in common use for that casting technique is a misnomer. The porous volcanic stone used by the Navajos is probably tuff, compressed volcanic ash, not limestone. I cast some silver pieces using that method years ago and -- if I recall correctly -- the material was tuff which is basically tiny shards of wind-borne volcanic glass that's been solidified as sediment. My original question was how does the garnet technique differ from tufa casting? What does the garnet sand do? How does it improve the process? Rick [/quote]
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Post by 1dave on Oct 11, 2020 19:30:41 GMT -7
The Tufa at Mono Lake are formed mud volcanoes during a period when the lake water was MUCH deeper. It really is just hardened high limestone content mud. EDITED TO ADD: I should add that it's very alkaline. Higher than carbonates alone. No particular argument with what you say but is it the same stuff the Navajo smiths call "tufa?" I don't think so. I believe they use tuff (consolidated volcanic ash) and that "tufa" in that context is a misnomer. Either way there's no reason to raid Mono Lake's protected towers The stuff Navajo smiths use can be had for a couple of bucks a pound from Thunderbird Supply. Rick
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