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Rosin

Jewelry Discussion
#1

Sat back down to the bench after sending that rosin source to y’all,
and kinda let let my mind wander back to the days when I was still a
pup…

I wasn’t much of a bull rider - too tall. Did better at bareback
bronc and saddle bronc events. (All of which also use rosin - on the
riggin, as well as the gloves.) I wound up ending my “career” in the
arena as a “heeler” - the better half of a of a team of ropers…

Anyway, I found, amongst the memories, something prodding me… I
remember using rosin as part of the formula for some pitch I made up
for a special job. Maybe someone out there can come up with the
recipe. It has been better than 20 years ago… and that part just
flat refuses to come back to me.

It was used to hold a large cast belt buckle that I had to chase some
detail into. I just now pulled the pitch bowl out and blew the dust
off it. The impression of the buckle is still there! I even found a
photo of the job!

Pretty amazing, considering all those years, and the fact that my
shop went through a fire in 1997. The pitch has a better memory than
I do…

Well, it’s getting late - and I gotta get these flasks in the kiln.
G’night all.

Brian P. Marshall

#2

Hi Brian;

I was just wondering if that rosin you mentioned had similar
characteristics to a material we used called “K-resin”. We mixed it
with tallow and flint powder to make an excellent chasing/repousse
pitch. Can’t remember the proportions. Seems it was about half
resin, half flint powder by weight, with about 1/2 cup tallow per
gallon. We made a lot of small test batches to arrive at the best
formulas, one for summer and one for winter. A good pitch mixture
should be such that at room temperature (depending on the season) you
should be able to press your thumb on the surface, and after a minute
of constant pressure, sink a slight indentation into it. It should
stick to the work but not fracture under the shock of the hammer. I
have some that is about 25 years old, and it’s about had it, probably
slow evaporation of the volatile oils. If anyone out there has
Phillip Fike’s old handouts on pitch recipes, they were great and
I’ve long since lost mine. If anyone has a good pitch recipe, please
upload it to the ganoksin ftp site for us. That “rosin” just might
be a suitable substitute for the old “K-resin”, which I suspect is no
longer available (we got the last of it at the time, 30 years ago).

David L. Huffman