Dear all, I have just started casting sterling silver in cuttle fish
and was wondering whether any of you could offer advice on how to
improve my results.
I work in sterling silver and tend not to cast volumes larger than
5cc, my only heat source is a sievert propane gas torch with a medium
sized burner head, which seems to liquefy the metal without too much
trouble and has the added benefit of warming up my work shop. I throw
in some flux (tenacity) when the metal goes red and again when it
becomes molten. I then try and get the temperature up before pouring.
I make the moulds by dressing two pieces of cuttle fish (I divide
them into thirds) with sandpaper to get a flat surface and then press
the form into the fattest piece of bone, scraping out excess material
if the form is too big to do this in one go. I then carve in a sprue
and score some small vent lines from the inside of the mould before
clamping the two together and pouring the molten silver.
What I have found is that the end results differ quite a bit and I
would like to improve on what I have done. Also, could reusing
previously melted silver (e.g. recycling the sprues) and a build up
of glass in the crucible (I assume coming from the flux) be in part
to blame and is there a way around these?
Thanks
Chris