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Thread: Simple heart pendant

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
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    Northeast UK
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    821

    Default Simple heart pendant

    Hi all,

    Here's a collage of pics showing a recent simple heart pendant I made recently.

    The customer sent me 8 silver 'love tokens' to melt down into the pendant.

    Basically in the 17th century a love token was a silver sixpence of William III. A romantically inclined fella bent one edge and handed it to his potential sweetheart. If she accepted his advances then she bent the other side, so the coin ended up with an S shaped profile.

    So.. 8 separate love stories from the 1600's repurposed into a nice anniversary gift for his wife who was pleased as punch. Anyway here's the pics.

    The box itself was also handmade out of mahogany that I had lying about.

    Cheers,

    Nick

    Last edited by Nick martin; 11-11-2017 at 10:30 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
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    Central London
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    I don't see the pics, Nick. Come on, hand them over. Dennis.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
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    Default

    Try now Dennis?

  4. #4
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    Dec 2009
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    Central London
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    I see them now. That's a treasure of a gift.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
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    2,067

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    West Berkshire
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    Default

    Lovely box, the heart is nice too Lovely finish on it Nick.
    BTW I still have not been able to cast anything. I think I will give it a miss, just can't understand why the silver will not flow......

  7. #7
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    Mar 2013
    Location
    Northeast UK
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    Default

    Hi Theresa,

    If you're starting with a brand new crucibile, you need to condition it first.

    By this I mean bring it up to heat for a while and add borax to it while doing so. The intense heat of your torch and the powdered borax will give it a smooth glossy coating, a sort of heat-treatment if you like and this helps the flow of your metal when molten.

    Of course you need a powerful enough torch to melt the metal you're casting, and I personally use the Smiths Little Torch on an oxycon generator with propane. I also use the multi-jet nozzle, although my Sievert will also do the job.

    So in summary, as long as your metal is molten and your crucible is up to temp, and you've been adding borax to help bring impurities out, then you should have no problem casting into whatever mould your using.

    Where 'do you' think you're going wrong? I.E. which step?

    Nick

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    West Berkshire
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    660

    Default

    My crucible was an old one so very 'glassy'.
    My torch is a Sievert
    After about 15 minutes of torching I gave up. The metal was melting but not flowing enough.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Posts
    232

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by theresa View Post
    My crucible was an old one so very 'glassy'.
    My torch is a Sievert
    After about 15 minutes of torching I gave up. The metal was melting but not flowing enough.
    15 minutes?? No offence, but you must be doing something wrong, or, you aren't using the right size burner on your Sievert.

    I use a 2" scorifier like this one: http://www.cooksongold.com/Jewellery...prcode-999-AKP
    With this Sievert burner: http://www.cooksongold.com/Jewellery...prcode-999-ALD

    I have made successful ingots with up to 20g of sterling silver and it has never taken more than 5 minutes for it to be swirling around like quicksilver and ready to pour. I have also made a number of delft clay casts with around 15g of silver and again, I never have gone beyond 5 minutes before it's ready to pour.

    A good rule of thumb is to use the larger burner which is rated at around 240g/h to melt around 1oz of silver.

    If you do it right, i.e. Have the right torch burner at the correct distance, the silver will be molten within about 90 sec and ready to pour between 3-5 minutes.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
    Location
    South Devon, UK
    Posts
    25

    Default

    Rather a nice piece of work!

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