Dear Orchidians,
Kerr has introduced a relatively new injection wax called Accu
Carve. The difference is in the “carve” part, with statements that
the wax will carve acceptably in post inject wax work.
We just got the wax and tried it today. Certainly, the wax is not
as clean to carve as the “file waxes” but using sharp tools such as
graver the results are quite good.
In a wax shot today, I tried the “snap on” sanding disks and using
the disk and wax wet, the material sanded nicely, removing
imperfections and smoothing the surface nicely. This is better in
my opinion than the results of Kerr Inlay waxes when used as
build-up and refine by tool work. The Accu Carve builds nicely and
smoothly with hand application.
Any comments on this wax will be appreciated. I find it to be the
best we have used to date, for the combination of detail
reproduction, speed of usage, removal strength and post work
combined.
As a ps to the post, we noticed that the wax reproduces detail very,
very well. Dwell time is short and cooling time in the mold is very
quick. There seems to be a fairly narrow temp range for good
injection but with that found for the mold used, I believe you will
be happy with the wax for more than anticipated carving. I suspect
burnout will be just fine, as with other Kerr products but have not
yet cast from this wax.
The above is part one of this post. The second concerns another
issue…should the item be fabricated directly or cast? The above
wax was used at the urging of another “to cast” an item I had hand
forged.
I forged a ring with various tapers in sterling silver. This
initial forming was done to get some idea of what would be needed to
produce the item in 14k white gold. The silver work is of course,
quicker than in white gold. I planned to hand forge the final
item(a pair of rings) but was encouraged by the shop owner to take
the completed sterling prototype and cast from that. Time
considered, I believe forging would be more economical even with
some waste of gold in trimming and final finish.
The wax work included a mold in first “no shrink pink” and a
following and more acceptable mold in regular silicon rubber. The
shrinkage was a consideration since the original was made to real
size. After a wax was made, buildup was needed and finishing that
before casting. Agreed, forging two identical rings with changing
tapers is not easy but direct fabrication “where the hammer meets
the gold and the gold in on the stake” seemed faster to me. The
"no shrink" wax model was so close in dimension to the regular
silicon rubber mold that I have decided not to use the touchy “no
shrink” at all. The “no shrink” rubber reacts with silver producing
an ugly and wax disfiguring surface. The regular silicon rubber
leaves a very clean and blemish free wax.
So, what is your impression? Either of the new Accu Carve wax,
using “no shrink pink vs. regular silicon rubber molds” or in the
approach to the job…direct fabrication(forged and finished) or to
cast?
Forgive for such a combined question.
God Bless.
TomDart.