The color, hardness and texture of carving wax changes whenever it’s
melted, for instance when you use your wax pen to build it up. The
higher the temp, the more the change. Try using as low a temperature
as possible with your wax pen and keep it melted for as short a time
as possible. Don’t let it smoke and if it turns at all brown, it’s
getting way too hot and burning.
That property is one of the reasons why carving wax doesn’t work at
all well as an injection wax. Unfortunately, there really isn’t a wax
that is good at both. Not that I’ve ever found anyway.
If you are doing highly detailed waxes and you like green carving
wax, try Margie Merski’s Deep Detail Carving Wax but it’s a lighter,
more olive green that’s easy on the eyes. I found that it is a bit
harder than regular green wax so it can take a little more time to do
the same thing as it would in green wax (the harder the wax, the more
passes with a tool it takes to remove the required wax), but it
really lets you create some very fine detail. Sharp corners and crisp
relief are easy to do and it retains detail well as it is being
handled. It also seems to be a bit more friendly to building up with
a wax pen. Because of its hardness, It’s a tad on the brittle side
especially in thin cross sections, so don’t drop it on a hard floor
in a cool shop.
The tools I use for carving are very simple. For roughing in, I use
a “Vulcanite” wax file (a cheap, coarse, half-round file from your
local big box store can be nearly as effective) and a Matt reamer. I
also use a piece of open weave sandpaper (looks kind of like fine
window screen coated with abrasive) that my mother-in-law used to use
for ceramics. I lay it flat on a table and use it to remove the saw
kerf and to flatten and square up a wax after cutting it off of a
tube or other. Sorry, I don’t know what the name of it is but I
believe it’s made by 3M. 80 grit sandpaper works almost as well, but
it gets loaded up pretty quickly. Other must-have tools are a six
inch flexible steel ruler, a small machinist’s square and a pair of
dividers with sharp points. Starrett makes the best quality of these
tools, but they’re a little pricey. A high quality caliper also comes
in quite handy, not only for measuring but for ensuring square and
parallel surfaces.
For finer detail I use a few different needle files (mostly #2),
various gravers, a mold knife with a #11 blade (that I sometimes
grind the back off of), and a short piece of broken sawblade chucked
up in an Exacto knife handle extending about half an inch (12mm) from
the collet that I use in confined areas for doing such things as
carving small, square holes or tweaking the narrow ends of the slots
on an airline style shank. For drilling holes and cutting seats, use
flexshaft burs and drill bits by twisting them with your finger tips,
or you can chuck them up in a swivel tool handle for a little more
control.
The only other tool I use that I almost couldn’t live without is a
Kerr Mastertouch wax pen. This unit has been discontinued
unfortunately, and the tips are not available anymore either. The new
Kerr wax pen is pretty good although a bit pricey. The trick with any
wax pen as I said before is to use as low a heat setting as possible
(I use the foot pedal to cycle it on and off as needed to keep it
just hot enough for the step at hand) and to keep it molten for as
short a time as possible. Another basic trick is to avoid forming
bubbles as you build it up. They are generally formed by using too
much heat and/or moving the tip around too much in the molten wax.
It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it; it would take more time
for me to explain than for you to figure out. Just don’t move the tip
around very much (don’t stir as you melt) and be watchful that you
don’t introduce air into it by plunging the hot tip into the wax or
getting in a hurry, is really all there is to it.
Use the same wax to build up as you are carving. I use a chunk that
was cut off of the piece I’m carving whenever possible. Don’t try to
use the dust from filing or sanding. That is guaranteed to create
bubbles. You can use any wax, but the problem is that the hardness
and texture difference will make you crazy. Does me anyway.
Just because it’s a common question, I prefer Ferris brand of waxes
to Matt. Margie’s wax is made by Ferris for what it’s worth. Ferris
just seems to have better quality control. Matt wax often has little
bubbles that appear right where they are going to be the most trouble
and it sometimes has tiny chunks of burned wax and other junk
imbedded. The texture of Matt wax is also not always the same from
piece to piece.
I have a step-by-step demo of carving a split shank ring wax on my
website johndavidjewelers.com under the “Blogs” tab. My IT guy wrote
the text (and I’ve never taken the time to re-write it), so it’s not
all that accurate, but you can see most of the tools I spoke of in
action.
Hope this is helpful ~
Dave