Expert: Thomas - 7/8/2005

Question
I am a goldsmith.  I do most of my work by fabrication. I also do casting in gold and platinum for the trade.  I can do basic wax carvings but would like to do more advanced intricate carvings.  Any web sites, vidios or chat discussions to explain the tecniques would be appreciated.

Answer
Note: Follow-Up is below original answer.


Wayne, I am glad to receive you question. You can also find me at the allexperts  Jewelry, Gems and Minerals site.    

http://www.allexperts.com/getExpert.asp?Category=689           Thomas


Tonight I will not answer your question but want you to know the answer is on the way.  At work today, I had several thoughts from my experience and did research that will help in giving you a full answer, not the quick snippet of words with little value overall.

Right now it is about 8pm and the answer will likely take about 2 hours to put together.  Expect more than one page, for certain!   Fair enough for the answer to be done tomorrow?  I will do that and send you good information tomorrow.

For you information, we tried platinum casting “in-house” and found in the retail environment the most cost effective method was to use a service such as yours.  Not only did we lack the time but castings were simply not up to stuff.  We do a lot of gold casting but platinum we do farm out.  Sometime you might send contact information and I will give that to the business owner.

THE ANSWER.  What I intend to do is recommend basic ways of getting into wax carving, recommend tools and learning resources.   Know from the beginning that wax carving is sculpture in miniature.  All depends on whether you are only wanting the technical know-how or want to open creative doors which require both the technical aspects of doing the work and the creative ability to see and recreate the design in wax.

I will address both issues, beginning with tools and basic materials you will need to start.   As for schools teaching wax work, this is generally a “part” of training offered at several schools for jewelers.   Generally, the technical aspects are covered along with casting.  The casting you already know.   In the meantime, if you want to check that possibility, see the web site for The Lapidary Journal Magazine and search the ads for schools.    The search capability varies and it might take a copy of the magazine to see all the schools listed in the display and classified ads.  The address for the web site is:

www.lapidaryjournal.com        Oh my, I do wish allexperts offered active web links!

I will get the answer together tomorrow and send it on.  Have a good day or evening, whichever is the case at the moment.


Peace to All.         Thomas.              07/08/2005 8:23 PM

FOLLOW-UP  July 9,2005.

Wayne, I am back with more to say on wax carving.  Though I am far from the best in sculpting wax, I do know how and will share some of that information.  Much of the artistic aspect will have to come from within you, in natural ability and abilities which may be fine tuned and trained.  Let's start with basic tools.

WAX CARVING TOOLS.  This is concerned most directly with “carving” wax and not items made by build-up of melted wax, though both methods are often combined to create an original model.

Wax.   The wax recommended is Farris carving wax. This is often listed in catalogs as “file-a-wax”.  Three grades are available of differing hardness and flexibility.  Green is the hardest but also the most brittle; apply too much pressure to a thin section or drop the wax and it can actually break.  Purple is the in-between grade in hardness and flexibility.  Purple will take wonderful detail and is more forgiving than the green wax.  Blue is the most flexible and the softest.  The blue wax will take detail almost as well as the purple but overall I recommend the purple wax for most carving situations.   Other brands are available; unfortunately there is not a uniform “grading” by colors.  Farris is a quality product and you may be assured of that without searching other brands. Prices are comparable.

Forms of the carving wax include blocks, sheet, tube,  rods without a hole and preformed ring shapes.  For rings, I generally start with a tube form.   Since the model is formed by “taking away wax” choose a tube size slightly larger than desired for the finished model.

Hand Tools.
Hand carving tools vary according to the job at hand and with what you actually have on hand to work with!  Several tools may substitute for others, the difference being time required to carve the wax and detail allowed.  Think of this like carving a piece of wood log.  A pocket knife will get the job done..eventually.  An axe will remove large chunks but detail suffers.  A nice wood chisel might be perfect, even though a pocket knife will do the job after several days added work!

Files.  Files with fairly coarse teeth are used to remove large areas of wax.  Suppliers make hand files in both hand file and needle file size with teeth designed for wax work. Files are the real work horses of wax carving, forming the basic shape and form prior to detailing work.  A 6 to 9 inch double ended file is recommended. These have a flat surface on one side and rounded on the other. The file tapers to a point at each end. Each end of the double end file has a different tooth cut,  one being finer than the other.

You will need a set of small needle files made for wax carving.  These do a good job with edging recesses, forming small areas and adding detail.

Gravers.  These are the same tools engravers use for metal work.  Gravers work like small chisels to perform clean and very accurate wax removal.  Detail is well controlled in both surface and undercut designs.  I suggest a knife graver, a flat graver about size 46(2.4mm) or 40(1mm), a 52 round graver(0.6mm) and a square graver of size 1 or 2(about 2mm square on the end face).   

Gravers come without handles and must be cut to proper length for your hand then the handle driven onto the shank of the tool.  With a graver handle resting in the palm in the thumb joint, the tip of the tool should reach close to the end of your middle finger.  Cut the back of the tool to length with a grinder or separating disc, hold the graver in a small vise(not on the point!) and gently hammer on the handle.  Sharpen the point on a bench stone, maintaining the shape of the face and hit the sides lightly to remove burs.

You can make tools from concrete nails if desired, grinding to shape and sharpening the face.  Many wax carvers make and modify tools to suit the sort of work they do.  Any decent piece of carbon steel may be used to make a wax carving tool and may be substituted for gravers.  Knives are not very handy in wax work but hand made specialty tools are.  


Power or Rotary Tools.
Using a variable speed “dremel type” tool or preferably a “flex shaft machine”, wax carving gains speed.  With practice, rotary tools work as well as hand files, sometimes better.  Still, hand tools are needed for detail work.

You will need a variable speed tool since most wax carving is done at a relatively slow speed.  Choose a “chuck” type hand piece if possible to allow both 3/32” and 1/8” shaft tools to be used.

Files.  A rotary file works wonders in doing initial forming of wax.  These are generally ½” diameter and about 1 ½” long.  The shank is available in either 3/23” or 1/8”.  Choose “standard cut” since fine cut will clog with wax.

Burs.  Suppliers have what are called “wax burs”, small cutters with as few as 3 cutting wings on the bur head.  These are strictly for wax and cut quickly.  Some care must be exercised in getting used to the cutting action.

Finishing Tools and Devices, other Tools.

A Wax Pen or heated tool is needed to repair damage or to build up added wax to a model when necessary.  Several brands are available with a selection of tips.  You need at least one very fine tip for intricate touchup and a broader one(like might be used to sprue a wax model) for large area smoothing and buildup.   You likely have all of this stuff.    I started with a “radio shack” 15 watt soldering iron and a rheostat to vary the temperature. The copper tips were easy to file to various shapes.

Panty hose or ScotchBite pads(fine and very fine grades) are used to smooth the wax surface in final form. Use these with water for a better touch.  Some carvers also use a small flame(like from an alcohol lamp) to smooth the surface of an item when detailed carving is not involved.

Wayne, those are the basic tools needed.  Now I will suggest ways to learn more about the work.  Besides the real truth tester of getting a piece of wax and going to work on it, you can save time by some study of wax work in general.  I will recommend two books that may help.  I have avoided books in which the author emphasizes the use of tools they sell as part of their “recommended package”.

“Modeling in Wax for Jewelry and Sculpture”  Lawrence Kallenberg, about $35 US
“Creative Wax Carving”  Ruth Pierce, about $20 US

I suggest a visit to a good book store to scan over books on woodcarving, “relief” carving in particular. The tools are different however the basic cuts needed to achieve a particular form are very similar.  In carving a face or figure certain areas are removed first to achieve the form and this is just as true in wax work.   A book on sculpting clay may also be helpful. Though clay is built up and removed to form a shape, the methods of achieving a form are very similar even if different in scale and detail.

WEB SITE.  A valuable resource for jewelers of all sorts is  www.ganoksin.com
This site offers archives of questions and answers from a world wide group of jewelers.
Also, the site offers “tips from the jeweler's bench” with articles on various subjects.

To be part of the site and be able to post your thoughts, you need to sign up.  This is free.  There is not an on-line forum.  The site takes posts from members and these are emailed in what is called the “digest” several times a week.  Others respond and further “digest” emails contain responses.  There are very likely folks there who specialize in wax work who would be willing to provide advice.  I find the site quite valuable when I have a specific technical comment or even want help in doing things like photography of jewelry.

I mentioned jewelry schools in the first response to you.  Check those out if you are interested.  I simply do not know the sort of specialized wax work training available.

Whew, this is a long answer and could be much longer.  Let me know if the info is helpful and do not hesitate to get back if you need more specifics.  Since this is a long answer, rather than use the “follow-up” option, a new question would be better and prevent this days answer from getting too long to manage.

God Bless and Peace to All.       Thomas.            07/09/2005 12:07 PM