[Jewelry making - Article 00960] - [Orchid] Wax carving, smooth finish

[Sumner Silverman]

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    I recently received this email and I thought I would share my
    answer: 

>     I have just started to learn wax carving. Well i am trying to
>     teach myself is more like it. I have made a few shapes and basic
>     beginning things I am wondering if you could tell me how you
>     smooth work your work after it is finished? I rough the shape out
>     and try to smooth as best i can but it is not smooth at all. Then
>     when i try to put detail on i cant because it is too rough still.
>     Any help? If is was wood i would sand paper it but i tried and that
>     does not work too good. 

    Hi 

    I get this question frequently. I do work my waxes to an unusual
    degree of smooth finish. Well, there is no magic, the smooth finish
    is a result of working a piece down. I can give you a series of
    hints: 

    1) I use hard smooth green wax (Ferris), special order 5mm sheets 

    2) file the wax semi smooth with a wax file so that you can see your
    lines 

    3) use a skip tooth saw blade to cut out your design 

    4) make your tools, or modify others (Kate Wolf makes an excellent
    tool set, too large for my work) going from large (customize pen
    knives, gouges, knitting needles, whatever) to very fine (discarded
    burs, surgical blades and cutting needles,... I go down as far as
    common pins that I put edges on) 

    5) always keep an extremely sharp edge on your tools, or if they have
    a wider, more gradual bevel for burnishing, keep them very smooth 

    6) work very slowly from larger tool to smaller tool, eliminating
    roughness as you go 

    7) you should scrape and very rarely cut 

    8) you should scrape some more 

    9) keep scraping 

    I lied, there is, in fact, a magic ingredient: time. My waxes take
    from a week and a half to over a month working off and on. I make
    mostly all my own carving tools, I use a Foredom wax pen with a
    modified tip (sharpened and reduced in size) for initial shaping and
    molding (hot wax technique) and a cheap MaxWax pen for detail add on
    and finer hot shaping. I use a spring gauge to measure thickness. I
    work the wax to a thickness of 0.9mm up to 1.2mm around the joints
    where breakage can occur. I will go to a thickness of 2-3mm for
    places where clasps are soldered or for bails. At this level of
    precision, the piece automatically becomes smoothed. However, it does
    take much time. 

    I occasionally do use sand paper with a toothpick as a backing.
    Again, it is a very slow and precise operation going from 220, 320,
    400, to 600 grits. 

    hope this helps 

    szs 
    www.sumnersilverman.com
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