Rosin

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hi everyone; The product I’m looking for called “rosin” is the
materiel used to fill sterling silver weighted candlesticks, sterling
handled knives etc. Rosin comes in different melting temp. and I am
looking for some of each, especially any that will not melt in the
dishwasher. Please reply to above or to ray@triosilversmiths.com Thanks

2

You can find rosin from Daniel Smith in Seattle. Phone
1-800-426-6740. I use it as a resist to achieve a particular granular
effect in etching. It seems to melt on a hotplate at between 300 and
400 degrees F. Well below dishwashing temperature.
Rene Roberts

3

I was taught to fill knife handles etc. with a mixture of setters
pitch and plaster of paris. You just melt the pitch in a container (an
old coffee tin) and add plaster until you get a heavy messy sticky
pourable gooey mass.

Rosin is expensive (the same stuff that violinists use on their
bows(?)This is really inexpensive.

4

At the risk of sounding even more like a “veterinary jeweler”…(AJM

  • American Jewelry Manufacturer magazine has plumb wore out my tip on
    "cow magnets"!)

I’ll pop in here, and say, that to my knowledge the easiest place
(again) to find pure rosin is at the feed store. Bull riders use it
to get a secure grip on the rope they are hanging onto for 8 seconds
in a rodeo event… Maybe tack shops, Western stores, and rodeo or
roping arenas would be another good bet. Comes in chunks, or
powdered. Makes getting a good grip on most anything easier. Does
melt, but I never used it for much but the aforementioned
purposes…

Brian P. Marshall
Stockton Jewelry Arts School
704 W. Swain Rd.
Stockton, CA 95207
209-477-6731 Office/Fax
209-477-6535 Workshop/Classroom

5

Dancers also use if for dusting their toe shoes. Check your dance
suppliers.

Norman

6

Missed your tips on cow magnets Havent seen any since working in
slaughter houses What do you use them for and where can they be
obtained we used to sell them back to the cattle dealers to supply dairy farmers Leon K

7

G’day; In New Zealand, most of the milking platforms are partly
automated, and the cows know all about them. These ‘ladies of the
grass’ literally queue up to use the milking station when the time is
ripe (and so are they) As each ‘lady’ enters, the special magnet she
wears around her neck trips a relay, and the bar lifts to allow her
in. The most modern versions of this is for a low powered
interrogative microwave signal to beam out at the ‘lady’ and this
reflects from a special tag she wears and is received as a digital
number, which is strictly her own ‘name’. It detects which part of
the milking station she has entered and the farmer or assistant washes
and stimulates her teats, then attaches suction cups which extract her
milk. The amount of milk thus delivered is automatically monitored
and recorded against her number, together with the time she spent
there. The most modern of these stations also monitor the amount of
butter fat too. Farming science it is called! NZ is noted for it!
Cheers,–

ohn Burgess; @John_Burgess2 of Mapua Nelson NZ

8

I have had an unusually busy end of the school year, grad rush and
all that in addition to June weddings, so I have missed most of the
happening for about 3 weeks. I simply had to throw this out when I
read John’s post about the high tech farming. A friend of my daughter
was contracted with to write a software program that scanned the
magnetic key cards at the Marriott Hotels as the customers approach
the desk. Their profile and current arrangement appears on the
screen for the clerk prior to their actual arrival. I don’t know
about anyone else, but this fossil feels a bit intimidated by this. I
expected a day when “Big Brother” could watch us more easily but this
is a little too soon for me. I have to ask myself, if they can do
this with key cards; what stops them from doing the same with credit
cards?

Maybe just paranoid, Norman

9 
        A friend of my daughter was contracted with to write a
software program that scanned the magnetic key cards at the Marriott
Hotels as the customers approach the desk.  Their profile and
current arrangement appears on the screen for the clerk prior to
their actual arrival.  I don't know about anyone else, but this
fossil feels a bit intimidated by this.  I expected a day when "Big
Brother" could watch us more easily but this is a little too soon
for me. Maybe just paranoid, Norman

Okay, if that makes you paranoid, how about the implications of this
scenario: Pets are now having tiny ID chips imbedded under their skin
that can be “read” with a scanner. And the very rich are having
their children tagged with embedded chips that can be tracked by
satelite (much like that “On-Star” system in luxury automobiles) in
case they are kidnapped. Imagine your complete financial,
educational, medical, etc., profile kept in a huge database along
with your bank account, all integrated in a cashless society. You
get your own personal ID chip embedded at birth. Then, Big Brother
will not only know all about you, he’ll know where you are at all
times, what you buy, who you are with, and probably what you are
doing too . . .and if he wants all your money, who’s to stop him?
And people wonder why I like to keep a certain amount of
good-old-fashioned “tradition” around, like CASH and PRIVACY. By the
way, get rid of those “cookies” on your computer . . .why make it any
easier on them?

David L. Huffman (no, I’m not a raving lunatic, I’m just testing you, hope this was fun)