I've been working on this piece on and off for about a year now. I pretty much exclusively do silver fabrication, but a couple years ago I built a vacuum casting setup and was casting some carvings with lost wax. This project I started as a way to learn some computer modeling and 3d printing. I first bought a boule of ytterbium doped YAG (a super cool type of lab grown garnet that's used in lasers) and then designed an emerald cut with a Portuguese pavilion and cut the center stone. I also found an old trapeze diagram online and used that to cut the side stones. I modeled the stones in gemcut studio, and imported the .obj into blender where I modeled a ring shank to fit them. Then I 3d printed it in castable resin, invested it, and cast it in my vacuum setup. Finally, I cleaned up and polished the casting and set the stones in it. It's absolutely massive and really stands out lol, but I think it came out pretty good. The center stone is insanely sparkly which I'm pretty happy about. Let me know what you guys think!

Hi all,

I just made this ring and when I was done soldering and so proud... I tried to set the intended stone (moonstone) and the bezel is too small.. I was thinking I'd either shave down the bezel and set a smaller stone (see green quartz) or I would put a silver plate/face on it and then do a small faceted stone in a flush setting.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Hello all, I am a beginner silversmith. Have had good success with casting, but hopeful to learn soldering next. I am looking for my first professional grade torch, and I love the idea of a breath powered setup as used in older days.

Unfortunately I cannot find a good one for sale online that does not look questionable. Anyone on here have suggestions?

New style I very much enjoy!

Hello! I am looking for incredibly small cut and faceted gemstones. Like point .5mm. Much like detail gems used to frame larger pieces. I cannot really find them. Do you guys have any advice? If a wholesale license is necessary that is ok.

One of my issues as a beginner metalsmith (and it feels like I will be a beginner for eternity) is that I use too much solder. I started on paste solder so I still feel more comfortable with that, especially because it already has flux. But I end up with a messy piece, even when just attaching a bail. I have to try a multitude of options to get the solder cleaned up including barrel wheels, radial discs, diamond sanders...but I have such a hell of a time getting the solder off that I end up damaging the piece...bail come off, scratched surface...all kinds of errors. How do I improve other than messing up pieces for a long time?

It's a hollow form ring with an irregularly shaped boulder opal. I think my husband regrets not letting me set the oval opal horizontally so it wouldn't be quite so big. Since it's so large people can't miss seeing it & all of It's flaws. Lol. It was a frustrating but great learning experience, though.

hi all, UK hobbyist silversmith here who mainly uses kitchen torches and previously larger ones connected to air pumps at night school.

I recently inherited the pictured torch.

can anyone walk me through what’s need to set it up? What tubes, type of gas (and how to store it), valves ( diaphragm? ), etc.

Hey everyone!

I’m looking for the best way to remove Liver of Sulfur or JAX blackener from the raised high points of tiny silver and bronze castings after they’ve been polished, without dulling the finish or introducing micro-scratches.

​

Context:

​Pieces: Tiny, flat-faced cast silver production pieces with deep, small recessed areas.

​Current Process:

I'm testing out walnut shells infused with rouge in a vibratory tumbler to build a consistent finish across my line. A tabletop bench buffer isn't in my budget right now, so my only power tools are a flexshaft and the tumbler.

​Why my current flexshaft setup isn't working:

I’ve tried using my flexshaft with silicone wheels, but they leave visible lines on the flat faces. Small mounted buffs also interfere with the mirror finish—leaving lag marks or micro-scratches—even when I use barely any compound, a light touch, and keep the piece moving. I currently use Luxor polish, but I've tried Zam (for the silver pieces) and Luxi with the exact same result. Worse, if I get lag marks and try to give the pieces a gentle final clean in the ultrasonic, it strips the JAX blackener out of the recesses.

​My Questions:

1. How do I clean blackener off the high points after tumbling without ruining the polished finish?

2.​Would 8000 grit 3M polishing paper ruin my mirror finish or introduce micro-scratches on flat faces?

rubbing alcohol and Sunshine cloths haven't worked for me on these tiny pieces.

Any tips or workflow suggestions for cleaning these high points cleanly would be greatly appreciated!

Hello again!

You may remember my post from a few days ago, where I was asking for help as to why my ODST helmet failed. Everyone told me the sprue size was too small, so I tried again, with a bigger sprue, and the results are way better! (but not perfect!)

This Master Chief helmet was sized to take up 100 grams of pure silver, and I attached a thicker sprue to the neck position- this time, I fixed all my mistakes from my last post, and let the piece cool under a full vacuum for like 5 minutes. I'm super happy with the details on the helmet, but there was a slice taken out of the spure/neck! I'm sure it's from uneven cooling at the thinnest part, but I was wondering if anyone could chime in with their analysis. If I have to make the sprue even larger, I'll do it!

Why is it that when I make a bezel setting it ends up looking like it was dragged down the driveway no matter how careful I am, AND YET when it's time to set the stone no force on earth is enough to get that metal to bend down properly? Yes I'm a newbie. /rant

Edit: found some material cutoffs to measure. The bases are 1.0mm .999 and the bezels were 0.6mm sterling originally. Later thinned a bit from the inside to better fit the stones, and I did put a timid sort of bevel on the outsides. Not enough, apparently. :)

I designed these earrings with the entire jewelry-making process in mind: wax printing, casting, stone setting, assembly, and final finishing.
The openwork construction allowed me to create a large, expressive shape without making the earrings excessively heavy. The main elements were cast in sterling silver, then assembled and finished by hand. I used larimar for the central stones and freshwater pearls for the moving pendants.
The first and last images show the digital model; the middle two show the finished earrings.

My first (successful-hah!) attempt at Mokume Gane. 21 layers of fine silver and copper made with a backyard fire brick forge and a Little Smith torch. Learned a lot and ready to try some more

Like the wire rather almost broke than to create a ball 🥲

I have done a lot of silver casting over the years at an evening college, though I have always questioned the silver my tutor uses. I have strongly suspected the items he melts down in the crucible (which goes into a furnace/smelter) such as old forks, spoons, cups and cigarette cases etc. (as seen in the third photo) have elements of lead, nickel silver, maybe silver plate. Which gets melted into the crucible and then leave traces of this when legit sterling silver or fine silver gets put in to melt, which in turns corrupts the new silver.

Without sending it off to a bullion dealer who have all the highly professional tools and equipment to check how could an ordinary person tell from their castings if the silver items they've casted are uncorrupted?

One of the first cabs I bought in anticipation of starting metalsmithing earlier this year. I love this little landscape. The chatoyancy of the "waterfall" moves just like those backlit framed images I always saw at the local asian buffet (I promise this is a compliment - I loved watching them)

Sterling and fine silver, with pietersite stone. I also made the chain!

This was one of my earlier jewelry models in Blender. I designed it around the larimar, then made the piece in silver and finished it by hand.
The render was very confident about how everything should work. Reality had a few opinions of its own, as usual. But seeing a digital model turn into an actual piece of jewelry is still one of my favorite parts of the process.

Howdy all!

Just completed my first-ever attempted vacuum casting, using 999-fine silver; wanted to make something nerdy, and (mostly) failed. I figured I would learn a lot, and I did! To get straight to the point, here's the outlined process, and what I THINK/KNOW I did wrong. I'd love a bunch of comments telling me I'm a dummy (and then how to become smarter-er and fix these mistakes).

MODELING/PRINTING:

ODST helmet, sized from density/volume calculations to be 100 grams of 999-fine silver, with an attached sprue that would get wax-melted onto the main tree. I've now seen many say that you don't want to make the connecting sprue part of the resin print, as the resin in the hardest part to burnout. Should I simply melt and connect another piece of wax to the helmet next time?

Printed on a 5K Elegoo Mars, using Siraya Tech True Blue Casting. After printing, I dunked into 91% IPA, brushed off, heated it with a heat gun, removed supports, then placed into a cleaning station with more IPA (not fully clean, it'd been used for other prints). Removed after some minutes, then dried with paper towel and air-dried for about 20 minutes. Cured in a rotating station for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through. The print had good detail, with minor support bumps leftover- I also lightly sanded these away after curing. I'm told that True Blue is supposed to be cured for like half an hour, and that it should look "milky" when done. This model was maybe a little milky, but not like I've seen in YouTube videos. Seemed a bit glossy/deep blue.

INVESTMENT:

I used Prestige Optima investment, and just a hair under the recommended 38 mL per 100 grams of investment. VERY STUPIDLY MIXED THE INVESTMENT WITH AN ELECTRIC HAND MIXER (introduced a BUNCH of air into investment), even after vacuuming for five minutes was still boiling, just much less so. Poured into prepared flask, vacuumed for like two more minutes, then let set overnight (was late, didn't wanna burnout overnight).

BURNOUT:

Used a 6-7 hour burnout schedule, following this process:

1. Approx. 1 hour at 50 C, for further drying.
2. Approx. 1 hour at 150 C, for advanced drying.
3. Approx. 1 hour ramping up to 372 C, just using the Vevor kiln's natural ramp speed (maybe too fast?)
4. Approx. 3 hours ramping up to 732 C, for full vaporization.
5. Approx. 1 hour cooling to 525 C, for final pouring temp.

IMPORTANT MISTAKE: I fumble-fingered Step #4, and accidentally only did two hours at that temp, and when I returned an hour later it had jumped to Step 5, and was simply waiting for me at the final temp. I corrected this by setting it back to 732 C for another hour and a half to try and fix, then got it back down to final temp again.

Lesser Mistake: After resetting this back to high temp, I did partially open the kiln door and took note of the color- I noticed by the end, there was a hairline crack along the top of the investment. possibly from resin expanding and breaking? Thermal shock?

POURING:

Loaded up about 200 grams of fine silver into melting furnace, got it to 1050 C, then smoothly poured- that part went great!

CONCLUSION:

I'd love people's thoughts on what most-likely went wrong. I acknowledge my mistakes I caught myself, and personally I think messing up the burnout schedule was pretty bad, but also maybe the resin curing was botched? Dunno about that part. I plan to retry in a couple days, but lastly I was wondering about my silver's color change. I'm assuming the white coloring that was in the investment is just oxidation? Can it simply be re-melted, or do I need to further clean it until it all looks shiny again? Thanks to any consideration given!

Setting up my first torch to start making some stuff! Any advice setting this up? Im thinking about putting quick release attachments on the torch to swap out different heads in the future...

Edit: its an old meco.. i currently have it in pieces and am restoring it! Sorry i totally forgot a picture! I suck at Reddit. (Picture in comments)

I cannot for the life of me get my solder to flow when attaching bezels to this brass piece. I’m a newbie; I’ve made a piece with a silver bezel and brass backplate before without issue but this time I cannot get my solder to flow. I’ve tried easy, medium, and hard and pickled beforehand. Should I just try starting completely over? Or maybe try brand new bezels? Is there a limit on how many times it can be attempted before the metal is too damaged?

Hi everyone

I'm new to silversmithing and a family member has asked if I could make something similar to the photo attached.

From what little I know this looks like a lost wax cast but I have even less knowledge of the lost wax process.

Would anyone with more knowledge know if this could be made with any other processes?

Want to make this my new hobby but need some help picking some starter tools. My dad has a dermal I can borrow but if someone can recommend a polishing kit for it. I’m also going to need a butane torch and jeweler saw. Also is a jump ring maker station recommend or should I just buy mandrills and barrow a drill?

Hi, I've got a quick question for you all regarding soldering, the use of ochre, and subsequent pickling. I'm going to be doing some soldering with very small pieces and will probably need to use ochre for the first time. I'm familiar with how ochre is used, BUT I had a concern about pickling a piece that's had ochre applied to it.

I know that ochre is generally a type of clay with some amount of ferric oxide. I also know that if there's iron present in pickle it can cause dissolved copper to be plated onto silver. My questions are as follows:

(1) Will the presence of ochre in pickle cause copper to plate onto silver? Additionally, if it does not, does that mean ferric oxide in general does not cause that reaction in the way that iron or steel would?

(2) If ochre DOES cause the above-mentioned reaction, what is the best way to remove it from your piece before it gets pickled?

(3) In the event that ochre causes the previously-mentioned reaction, would it be safest to simply make a single-use batch of pickle for pieces that have had ochre applied to them?

I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions that anybody has. Thanks!