I’ve tried the archives to no avail. Now I wonder if anyone in
Orchidland can help. Just wondering if anyone has made an item of
jewellery from one of the many alloys in use in the dental industry
today, and how would one stamp it? As an afterthought; what’s the
current opinion on dental investment? The names of Mr. A. Cooperman,
and Skip Meister(Skipmeister? sorry sp.) appeared numerous times in
my research. I would love to hear from either or both of these
gentlemen in order to gain from their expertise. Please forgive me
if my inquiries are redundant. Respectfully yours aurumdog (just an
old dog digging up the facts on gold) Back to school shopping is as
easy as 1-2-3
I've tried the archives to no avail. Now I wonder if anyone in Orchidland can help. Just wondering if anyone has made an item of jewellery from one of the many alloys in use in the dental industry today, and how would one stamp it?
Difficult, since these alloys are made for their metalurgical and
mechanical properties, in order to make the best dental work. The
karat is not a concern, at least so far as marking. Many are
somewhere close to 16 karat, but unless you know the exact alloy and
manufacturer, it’s hard to determine what it is. One would mark it,
generally, to the highest karat standard it legally met, which
usually would be equal to the karat content, or a mark of the next
lower karat if the alloy were between karat standards. But first,
you’d have to know what the karat is. Most dental alloys, by the way,
are not so easy to make jewelry from. they tend to be quite hard, and
not easy to work, and usually aren’t formulated for a particular
color either. Nice for casting, but the rest is unpredictable.
As an afterthought; what's the current opinion on dental investment?
Dental investments tend to be formulated for use with very small
flasks, and often are high expansion investments, so that thermal
expansion of the investment and flask compensate for the shrinkage in
casting of the metal. That gives a casting the same dimensions as the
wax. These are more costly investments than jewelry types, not good
for larger flasks in some cases, and often require a liner in the
flask to take up some of that expansion. Limited need in the jewelry
field for these, but when you need a high expansion investment, such
as for inlays, etc, they’re ideal. Also some of them are very good
for some of the high melting point alloys. Most of the jewelry
investments we use are in the end, adaptations of the dental products
that usually, came first.
The names of Mr. A. Cooperman, and Skip Meister (Skipmeister? sorry sp.) appeared numerous times in my research. I would love to hear from either or both of these gentlemen in order to gain from their expertise.
Andy is a Seattle area metalsmith who’d no doubt be happy to answer
you when he has time. Skip, unfortunately, passed away a few years
ago. A loss to us all. He was a dental technician by trade, and did
jewelry as a hobby, so his ability to inform regarding the dental
products was better than most orchidians. And he was a really nice
fellow.
HTH
Peter Rowe
(also in Seattle.)
While in Dental school, many pleasant hours were spent waxing and
casting fantasy projects. There are so many dental alloys, and they
are much more expensive than the typical jeweler’s casting grains
that
I do not see any sense in using these. If you are talking about using
old crowns for casting metal: it works but you would have to do a
Karat analysis of the alloy to know how to label it. To get good
castings you would also have to add virgin metal to the melt. I do
not
think this makes economic sense.
Now to the dental investments: they are designed to work as a system
with the matching plaster, rubber and wax materials to end up with a
casting that accurately fits a prepared tooth. Again much more
expensive, more accurate than you need.
Charles Friedman DDS
Ventura by the Sea
Active Deep Drawer
If you are selling the product commercially the FTC rules apply -
10K is the lowest karat gold saleable in the US. In any event, the
quality/fineness must be stamped along with the manufacturers
trademark.
They are fun reading.
Paul Finelt, CIRM
PF Associates, LL.C.
http://www.finelt.com
Hi Don,
Sorry to reply so late, I’ve been in the Bay area for a few days.
Stamping any gold alloy depends, of course, on accuarately
determining the purity of the alloy.
Most yellow dental alloys that I worked with (years ago) were around
16 karat. I knew this because I purchased the alloys from suppliers
and the packaging included specs such as constituent metals and
their proportions. While they never referred to them by karat, it is
simple to determine karat if you know the gold content.
Not having any official info leaves you with the problem of
determining the purity or karat of the alloy. Gold testing solutions
would certainly narrow down the field, say, between 14k and 18k. I
would stamp such an alloy with the lowest karat that my testing means
would allow my to confidently state.
If my testing solutions show that the alloy is nonreactive under 14k
testing solution, but not so strongly so under 18k, I would stamp it
14. Since there is no 16k solution (and gold testing needles are
another thing altogether) I would be confident in stating that the
alloy is at least 58.5% gold. If it somehow tests later to 16K then
all the better. Someone got a deal and you committed no crimes.
Hope this helps,
Andy Cooperman