[Jewelry making - Article 00498] - Re: [Orchid] Elk Teeth

[wbell]

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    Elk tooth bezel 

    I work a lot with elk tooth ivory at http://www.elkvalleygold.com/ 
    On page 4 of my elk ivory jewelry you will find a picture of an elk
    tooth with a nice bezel cap. 

    Here is a simple way to make a bezel cap: 

    1. Heat up your injection wax - I just turn up my wax pot a bit
    until it is relatively runny.  You want it hotter than you would
    normally inject into a rubber mold because you want it to be thinner. 

    2. Sand the stem of the elk tooth so that it is relatively smooth
    with no bumps or rough spots that will catch as you remove a wax dip
    bezel. Also trim the end of the tooth root flat with a jewelers saw 

    3. Dip the root end of the tooth into the wax up to and beyond where
    you want a bezel to be. Remove quickly and hold root end down to let
    the wax run back to a drip on the end. 

    4.  Once the wax has hardened, cut a line in it with an Exacto Knife
    exactly where you want the bezel to extend to. 

    5. Carefully pull on the hardened drip and the wax cap should come
    free. It forms a vacuum and also may bond to the tooth so you may
    have to slip the Exacto Blade under the edge of the wax to help free
    it. 

    6.  You now have a wax cap that fits the tooth perfectly. Trim off
    the drip, add a wax bail, sprue and cast. Or solder a bail on after
    you cast the bezel cap. 

    While casting a cap like this may seem more time consuming, it is an
    easy process and the results are worth while.  I have made caps by
    fabricating them and soldering them but they never look as good as
    the ones produced by this method do and they require more work. 

Good luck.
Bill Bell.

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