Tag Archives: silversmithing

Tool of the Month – Pump Drill

I was all set this month to write about what I was taught is called an Archimedes drill. While researching it online, I discovered that this tool is actually called a pump drill and an Archimedes drill is something different! So, no interesting information on Archimedes to be found here today. He was pretty amazing, though, worth researching if you can find the time.

The pump drill is composed of a long drill shaft with a collet on one end, a handle with a hole through the centre, a weighted flywheel, and a length of cord. The flywheel is attached near the bottom of the shaft and the handle slides over the top. The cord is run through a hole near the top of the shaft and affixed to either end of the handle so that it hangs just above the flywheel. To use it, the correct size drill bit is inserted in the collet, one hand is placed on the handle while the other hand turns the shaft to wind the cord around its length, raising the handle near to the top of the shaft, where the cord becomes tight. Holding the drill upright and placing the drill tip against the material to be drilled, a smooth downward pressure is exerted on the handle causing the drill to rapidly spin. Once the bottom is reached, the weight is relieved and the drill allowed to rebound re-winding the cord around the shaft and the process is repeated. It is a simple concept but a skill that takes practice to master.

The pump drill is a variation of the bow drill, which has been in use for at least seven thousand years. As well as drilling holes, the bow drill can be used to start a fire using friction. My occasionally burnt fingers can attest to the heat that can be generated by a drill spinning – silver is a great conductor of heat, and I have not only heated my fingers but made burn marks in my bench peg by drilling a piece of silver before now! As well as my pump drill, I sometimes use my flex-drive with a drill bit attached for drilling holes – there is something far more satisfying about using the lovely, simple, ancient pump drill though!

smithing – handcrafting a sterling silver and gemstone ring

I love seeing other people’s processes, so I thought it was time I shared the process that goes into creating one of my gemstone rings with you!

First, I cut a strip of .6mm sterling silver sheet to form the bezel for the gemstone.

I file one end of the strip flat.

I heat the strip to the point that the metal ‘relaxes’ and the molecules line up so that the metal is malleable. This is known as annealing.

After it cools, I immerse the strip into a slightly heated 1/10 sulphuric acid/water mixture. This mixture is known as pickle, and cleans any oxidisation, dirt, or flux from the metal.

After a good rinse and dry, I bend the strip to conform to the shape of the stone.

I cut the strip to the correct length.

I file the other end of the strip flat, so that there is a seamless join where the two ends meet.

I solder the strip together to form the bezel.

After another bath in the pickle, I hammer the bezel on a mandrel to form the correct shape, and flatten the join.

I check that the gemstone fits well inside the bezel.

I emery the bottom of the bezel flat.

From a sheet of 1.0mm sterling silver, I cut a plate to form the base of the bezel.

I make sure the bezel and plate fit smoothly together.

I coat the silver with flux (borax), and place paillons of solder inside the bezel.

I solder the bezel to the plate.

After it cools, the soldered parts go through the pickle procedure again.

Once the bezel setting is clean and dry, I cut the excess material from the base.

I file most of the excess metal from the bezel setting.

I anneal a strip of metal around 1.0mm-1.2mm thick to form the ring shank.

I bend the ring shank to the correct size and shape.

I cut the excess metal from the shank.

I file the top of the shank to fit snugly against the bezel plate.

I solder the shank to the bezel plate, and pickle again.

I stamp 925 and my maker’s mark into the shank.

I file the remaining excess material flush with the bezel base.

I mark the bezel.

I file the bezel down to fit the stone.

I emery the top of the bezel.

I emery the entire ring with coarse emery.

I emery the entire ring with fine emery.

I place the gemstone inside the setting.

I place the ring in my engraver’s block.

Using my setting hammer and a punch, I set the stone.

A final cleanup and a polish with tripoli and then rouge using my flex drive (which I haven’t shown you here), and the ring is ready to go to a new home!

Tool of the Month – Soldering Torch

One of the most important pieces of equipment a jeweller needs is the soldering torch. I use an LPG gas torch. LPG is a mixture of propane and butane.

Nearly every piece requires some amount of soldering. Soldering is the process of joining two pieces of metal together by heating them, using a material of another similarly coloured and structured alloy metal with a lower melting point than the metal being joined.

There are three types of silver solder commonly used:
Hard solder – the highest melting point of between 745-778⁰C.
Medium solder – melting point of between 720-765⁰C.
Easy solder – the lowest melting point of between 705-723⁰C.

As sterling silver melts at 893⁰C, the solder will reach melting point before the silver and fuse the two pieces together.

Flux is painted onto the surfaces to be soldered to prevent oxidization and firescale and ensure that the solder will fuse to the metal. I use borax, which you can see in the dish at the back of my heat resistant blocks.

Paillons of solder are positioned so that they touch both pieces of metal to be joined. The entire piece is heated evenly with the torch to the melting point of the solder, causing the solder to run and join the pieces of metal together.

Once the metal has cooled, the piece is placed in a sulphuric acid solution (which is known as pickle) until it is a white silver colour to remove any oxide and flux, then it is rinsed in water and dried.

This ring is an example of a piece that required soldering. The ring itself is soldered together at the bottom. The swirls and the balls are all soldered individually to the top of the ring.

One of the many joys of silver is that no matter how many times it is heated, melted, beaten, bent, twisted, cut, it maintains the same qualities and substance, so can be repurposed over and over again. I’m proud to say that the supplier I source my silver from manufacture right here in Australia using reclaimed silver wherever possible, so that no unnecessary mining takes place. This recycled silver is refined and tested to ensure that it is 100% pure sterling silver. The planet thanks us!

Blacksmithing

When I first started silversmithing, I hadn’t made the connection, but I came to realise that I had become part of a family tradition of shaping metal with hammers and fire. There have been smiths in my family since the 1830s. My great-grandfather, great-great-uncle, and great-great-great-grandfather were all village blacksmiths in tiny villages in Kent and Sussex, England.

Great-Great-Uncle Bill Horton working in the forge c 1900 – Brede, Sussex, England

My grandmother, who is now 97, remembers her dad working at his forge first in Guestling Thorne, then in Icklesham, Sussex, making horseshoes and farming implements. He made the gates for Rambledown House in West Chiltington, West Sussex, where my Great-Auntie worked, which I believe may still be there.

Trivet made by Great-Granddad Robert Horton

Great-Granddad also made this gorgeous trivet (I presume for my Great-Granny), a horseshoe with little boots as the legs, which is one of my most treasured possessions.

Hook made by me

A few years ago, I did a weekend blacksmithing workshop at the railway yards in Ipswich. The first thing I smithed was this hook, and I am very proud of it. Building the forge fire using coke, maintaining it, heating the straight iron rod to red hot, and hammering it with a big hammer on a huge anvil was very exciting. I had to adjust to the idea that the metal had to be glowing red, as if you heat silver to that state, it means it’s melting! Although I got covered in black coke dust, and was pretty worn out by the end of the weekend, it was immensely satisfying and something that I mean to do again some day.

I wonder what my great-great-great-grandfather would have thought of my endeavours? I hope he would have been pleased!

the silver forge

jewellery handcrafted by ruthie gray

Tag Archives: silversmithing

Tool of the Month – Pump Drill

smithing – handcrafting a sterling silver and gemstone ring

Tool of the Month – Soldering Torch

Blacksmithing