Cast Jewelry: A Primer

Rings Jewelry Report by Mark B. Mann

jewelry ring casting

Lost-wax investment casting was formally established in the early 1900s in the dental industry and was embraced enthusiastically because it ensured great accuracy in creating reproductions. It soon evolved into a process for jewelry, where it has grown to be the largest manufacturing category.

The casting process that has resulted from nearly 100 years of developing technology is not so scientific that it’s fail-safe. In the hands of those unprepared to meet its technical challenges, casting has the potential for defective results.

To make sure you have the know-how to avoid these pitfalls, we’ll focus the next two installments of the Quality Assurance Guide on these important aspects of casting:

1. Methods and observations for identifying cast articles of jewelry (in this issue).
2. Quality features of cast articles of jewelry (in this issue).
3. Identification and analysis of common defects resulting from improper casting (written by Tom Weishaar and appearing in the June issue).

Overview of the Casting Process
The goal of lost-wax investment casting is to create wax copies that allow mass production of articles basically identical to a handmade original. For anyone unfamiliar with the process, here’s a much-simplified explanation:

• Begin with a piece of metal jewelry called the model.
• Make a rubber mold by covering the metal model with a solid mass of layered, unvulcanized rubber and subject it to heat and pressure to vulcanize or “cure” the rubber.
• Using a surgeon’s knife, dissect the rubber mass and remove the original model. Unless the rubber mold is removed carefully, the lines where it’s cut – called parting lines – may show on the resulting wax model reproductions.
• Inject molten wax into the rubber mold; the resulting wax reproduction is used as the master to produce mass numbers of the article.
• Place the wax model in a flask, surround with investment (a plaster-like compound that withstands high heat).
• After the investment has set, the assembly is placed in an oven to create the mold for the jewelry.

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