[Jewelry making - Article 01058] - [Orchid] Making large silver granules

[LSHancock]

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    All, I have been making some pieces with rather large silver granules
    of about 3 mm.  Currently I am buying casting grain and sorting out
    the best ones.  They don't have to be perfectly round, but they
    can't be saucer shaped or have sharp edges.  In a 10 ounce batch of
    grain I can get about 2 ounces of usable large granules.  I'd like
    to make/remake the ones that are too flat or sharp, rounder.  

    The only thing I have done at this point is to cut rounded holes in
    a charcoal block with a round bur and remelt the pieces there.  This
    has been unsatisfactory because the beads are too oxidized (and
    therefore very frosty when pickled, so that they don't match the
    other grains) and it takes far too long.  

    So, I checked Untracht's Jewelry Concepts and Technology, but the
    granules he shows being made are much smaller than I want to make. 
    I know that whatever I do they won't be perfectly round and that's
    OK, in fact it is preferable.  I also love the shiney finish the
    casting grain comes with, as opposed to the frosty finish I get when
    I remelt them with my torch. 

    Anyone have any experience or opinion as to how I could proceed? 
    I'm going to try the method in Untracht, but if anyone has any
    helpful hints or ideas, let me know.  Anything that is especially
    oriented toward mass production of these things is even more
    helpful.  I'd love to be able to make casting grain like the big
    metals houses do, but can this be done with a torch or do you need
    expensive melters and non-oxygen atmospheres? 

Many thanks,
Larry


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