Metals used to cast wax pieces

[Sandra]

Hi all,
I am about to send off a few wax pieces to be cast and potentially (if they turn out nice enough) will be sent back after clean-up to create molds for further castings. I usually have everything cast in silver, but to reduce costs do you think it would work OK to have it cast in bronze, copper or brass? I'm not sure if one metal works better for creating molds over another? I did have a piece cast in bronze once and I don't know if it was just me but I found it more difficult to polish up and remove the spruhs. I looked at the hardness scale for metals and bronze doesn't appear to be much higher in hardness than silver, so it quite possibly was just me....

[swageblock]

Hi ,bit slow replying to this. Bronze is a lot harder to saw and file,it blunts blades and wrecks files for fun!It is also a sod for soldering ie if you need to put sprues on and it dosn`t like being bent so shaping rings,hairslides etc becomes a nightmare.
I would stick with silver for masters to be moulded and then cast your finished items in whatever metal you require.
The company I work for casts both silver and bronze [as well as pewter and tin,but that`s another ball game] and as long as the master is well finished and a % added to allow for shrinkage silver is fine.

[Sandra]

Hi ,bit slow replying to this. Bronze is a lot harder to saw and file,it blunts blades and wrecks files for fun!It is also a sod for soldering ie if you need to put sprues on and it dosn`t like being bent so shaping rings,hairslides etc becomes a nightmare.
I would stick with silver for masters to be moulded and then cast your finished items in whatever metal you require.
The company I work for casts both silver and bronze [as well as pewter and tin,but that`s another ball game] and as long as the master is well finished and a % added to allow for shrinkage silver is fine.

Thank you much for the advice! Sorry but just seeing this now as have been out of country for a while. May I ask what company you work for?

[swageblock]

Hi, not on here very often!
I work for St Justin Ltd, Penzance. < www.stjustin.co.uk >
We make cast pewter,bronze and silver jewellery and also do contract/one off pieces.
Cheers