Eileen Moylan

Jewellery Designer & Goldsmith Cork

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Cutting Silver Part 2

04.11.2011 by Eileen Moylan // Leave a Comment

This is part two in a series of how to cut out a design in silver sheet using a jewellers saw. To see Part One click here.

 

Here are some photos of the piece once the paper has been taken off. I began by using my file on the rough edges and removing the scratches with emery paper. I then give it a polish on the polishing lathe.

Before filing and polishing
Before filing and polishing

 

Filed then finished with emery paper
Filed then finished with emery paper

 

Polished on the lathe
Polished on the lathe

 

Categories // My Workshop Tags // jewellers tools, Jewellery, Jewelry, piercing frame, Silver, silver techniques, silversmith, silversmiths techniques, silversmiths tools

Cutting Silver Part 1

04.08.2011 by Eileen Moylan // Leave a Comment

I’m going to go through the steps of cutting out a design on metal showing the different techniques and tools that I use. I’ll start with the design on paper and show how I transfer and cut this out on my sheet of metal.  Because this is only a demonstration I’m just going to use a piece of scrap copper.

Marking out pattern with stencil
Marking out pattern with stencil

I’ve chosen a pattern with a lot of cutting out so you can see how to cut a small detailed area with a jewellers saw. I am only going to use a section of this pattern so I using a stencil to pick an area and mark it out.

 

Design glued to metal and piercing frame ready to go!
Design glued to metal and piercing frame ready to go!

Once I have the design I glue my piece of paper on to the metal. I don’t always work this way. Often if it’s a pattern I might use again I will transfer the design on to the metal and save my original piece of paper to be used again. Once the paper is glued on I mark out the areas that will be cut out. With this design I’m going to cut out all the black sections.

Marking drill sections with centre punch
Marking drill sections with centre punch

These black sections will have to be drilled through to allow the blade to get into these areas. So I am going to mark the centre of the drilling hole with a centre punch. I use this because a drill bit has a habit of wandering if it doesn’t start on a recess. The centre punch forms a large enough dimple to guide the drill bit. It’s important to use this when I’m drilling in such a small area where there’s no room for error!

Drilling holes for saw blade
Drilling holes for saw blade

 

I’ve drilled all the holes and now I’m ready to start cutting. I open one side of the frame so I can pass the blade through the drilled hole and reattach it to my piercing frame on the other side.

Putting saw blade through drilled hole
Putting saw blade through drilled hole
Putting saw blade through drilled hole
Putting saw blade through drilled hole

I’m going to make a video of the cutting so you can see how the blade moves along the metal. I’ll post that on Monday..

Categories // My Workshop Tags // Centre Punch, Cutting Silver, Jewellers saw frame, jewellers tools, Jewellery, Jewelry, Silver, silver techniques, silversmith, silversmiths techniques, silversmiths tools

Spoon Part 4

03.04.2011 by Eileen Moylan // Leave a Comment

This is part four of a series on how to make a spoon.

Click on the links to see Part one, two and three.

The spoon is nearly finished, all the cutting and hammering has been done. All that’s left to do is file and polish the piece. In this post I will go through the different stages of finishing as well as the tools and products I use.

Filing the edges
Filing the edges
Filing the edges
Filing the edges

I begin by filing the edges to even out any roughness. Once I’m happy with the shape of the spoon I remove the file marks with emery paper. I use different grades of emery paper from 320 to 1000 so I have less work to do on the polishing lathe.

Polishing on the lathe
Polishing on the lathe
Polishing on the lathe
Polishing on the lathe

Then I polish the spoon on the lathe. This is done using two different mops. The first is a roughing out mop which takes out the scratches and marks. This mop is made from numerous circular layers of fabric that are stitched together at the centre. The mop is used along with a polishing lustre. This is an abrasive compound that comes in a bar and is applied to the mop. While this initial polishing removes marks left from the emery paper it doesn’t bring up a bright reflective finish.

Putting lustre on the mop
Putting lustre on the mop

The next stage of polishing on the lathe uses a softer mop which is made up of layers of soft fine fabric. This mop is used along with a polishing rouge. Jewellers rouge is a red coloured compound bar that is used in the final stages of polishing. This rouge like the luster is used on the wheel to refine the surface. The rouge helps to obtain a fine mirror finish on the metal.

Jewellers Rouge
Jewellers Rouge

Because of the shape of the handle I use a small mop on my drill to get into the areas that the larger mop can’t polish. Like the polishing lathe I use the same lustre and rouge to bring up the finish. Now that all the marks have been polished out and the metal is bright and reflective I can clean the piece in the ultrasonic.

Polishing using my pendant drill
Polishing using my pendant drill

I’m going clean the spoon and set it up to be photographed over the weekend so I’ll post the results on Monday.

Categories // My Workshop Tags // annealing, jewellers tools, planishing, polishing lathe, Silver, silver techniques, silversmith, silversmiths techniques

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