Re the setting of sharks teeth. I recently did one for a gentleman. It was
about 1.5" long across the root (the part that was in the sharks gums) and
about a quarter inch thick. I took some pink sheet wax and molded it over
the root part and down to the gum line, pinched it at the ends and smoothed
the wax. When I pulled the tooth out it spread the wax slightly but keep the
overall shape perfectly. I cast the wax, cleaned out the casting so the
tooth slid in with very small tolerance (shrinkage in the casting was just
about perfect but required a small amount of gold be removed. This also
allowed me to correct the inside form so the tooth fit very well. I soldered
a nice large jump ring to the top and added a carved bail. When it was all
sculpted and polished, I coated the inside with a small amount of epoxy to
preclude any future loosening slid the tooth in and very carefully burnished
the edges of the gold tight up against the tooth at the gum line. You must be
very very careful at this stage as the tooth will probably be brittle,
especially the root part and if any chips off, your casting will not fit
properly. I hope the teeth are worth it…this takes a lot of careful, close
tolerance work but the results are stunning.
Hi Wendy,
Recently I bought a shark’s tooth just for curiosity, it
measures 3"+ in length and over 2" across the root part, looking
like a Y. A possible setting were to make 2 bands or caps
fitting over the two ends of the root part, connecting them with
a “bridge” across the arms of the Y. This bridge could be made
in two parts, rivetted in the middle, and to whatever design you
like. Just a suggestion, hope I could have made clear what I
mean, Markus