Metalsmithinng

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

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]
Ah, I thought you were asking about the Tufa.

I'm sure you are right about Tuff!

The garnet has a reducing effect like working on charcoal so there isn't so much of a fire scale problem.

Dave

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

As Marie says, you can use a torch instead of a kiln on pmc. A pmc teacher walked me through the steps, and we used a mini-butane torch. Worked. That is the only pmc experience I have.

Great post! I have slowly been buying tools that will double for smithing whenever I can get a class for it. Oddly, they are not easy to find. I don't want a whole degree, for Pete's sake. I just want to watch a pro for a while and ask questions-- lots of questions.

Hey gemfeller- Thank you so much, but it is the lessons I'm having a hard time finding. I always hear about people taking classes, but I have no clue where they are finding them. My local rock club is small and last I checked didn't offer smithing.

My bad -- I'll start taking remedial reading lessons. I don't know about your area but here in CA nearly every 2-year college offers silversmithing classes as do most adult education programs.

Rick

Basic Ring Making:

Navajo Silversmithing: