The Opelousas courier., 1891-02-28
AND SILVER GOODS.
HOW JEWELERS. MERCHANDISE Is
MADE BY THE TRADE.
Valuable sweepings-Making the Al
Ioys-Wonderful Little Saws
How Rings Are Made.

kOyS-W OflU0EINR AIttA0 Sa"S-
How Rings Are Made.
81 get sixty dollars a barrel for the
sweepings of my floor" SAID a manufae-
turing jeweler to a Washington Star re-
porter. t'There is no question of poking
the dust over before it is bought. The
people who purchase it are glad enough
to take it at that rate unsight-unseen, as
the boys say. / sell the stuff to the re-
| fners, who make a business of buying
refuse that has precious metals in it and
separating it. The gold and silver they
get in this way are sold by them to jewel
ers in turn.
"I buy from the refiners or from the
assay Office the gold and silver that use,
getting it always perfectly pure-that is
to say, twenty.four carats. Then | make
my alloysf for myself, putting the desired
proportions of gold, silver and copper
into one of these little three-cornered
earthen pots and melting them all up to-
gether with fire. The copper l use is
like what ] have here in this box. You
see it somewhat resembles shot of differ
emit sizes. The copper is chemically
pure and when being prepared is poured
from the smelling pot held at some height
into a receptacle full of cold water,
which is kept stirred rapidly. Upon
striking the water the metal takes the
form of these globules. 1t is much more
convenient in this shape, because we can
weigh it out readily in any proportion
desired.
"The silver and gold as we get it is
melted up with the copper in proper
proportions for the alloys and cast in
iron molds. Thus prepared the ingots
are iattened out under a powerful roller
to the thickness desired. From these
slabs the pieces, of sizes needed for one
purpose or another, are cut off with a
big machine-knife. OF every new de-
sign that is brought into a manufactur-
ing jewelers. shop a pattern is made of
zinc or copper, so that when, something
of the same kind is ordered all the work
man has to do is to lay the pattern upon
the little slab of gold, trace its outlines
on the metal and afterward saw out the
article. Such saving is done with what
is called a pierce saw, which has q
blade like a fine wire and no thicker,
with little teeth. These saws are cheap,
costing only eighty cents a gross, but
the work they do is wonderful in the
hands of a skilled operator.
'sIf a ring is to be made a strip of
gold of the proper width is bent around
by a continuance specially adapted to the
purpose and joined with gold solder SO
artfuily that the place of j%uncture can
not possibly be discovered. Surprising
that . watch chain is to be reduced the
melted gold is first made into a square
bar of the length wished for and then
pulled through a round hole. Still it is 4
too large, and SO it is drawn through
successive round holes, each one smaller
than that preceding, until it is a wire of
required diameter. Then it only
remains to cut off, bend, solder,
and connect the links in order
to complete the chain. The chief
part of our business consists in doing
stock work. for the jewellers. They
send us all sorts of things to make. For
example, they want six rings, each with
q one-carat diamond. In conveying the
order the dealer includes the six one |
carat diamonds in a piece of paper folded
up, written on the outside the brief
directions that there are to be half a dozen
rings, each with a sing1s stone. My
business thereupon is to made the rings,
set the stones and deliver the goods as
ordered. ] should never think of adver-
vertising myself to the publicshscause
people might be disposed to come to me
directly for work, and, although / might
be paid more for an individual job, I
should lose the custom Of the jewellers,
upon whose patronage / am obliged to
depend. jewelers. recently have taken
to selling hair brushes and other articles
which compose toilet sets, with backs of
sterling silver richly chased. People
generally are not aware how this chasing
is done. The ignorant imagine that the
designs in silver on the backs of the
.cambs and brushes are stamped ON with
dies, but as a matter of fact they are
always made by hammering5with blunt
toolg from the wrong side of the silver,
as to fetch out in relief the patterns.
This process requires the greatest skill, and
it is for this reason, rather than for the
value of the metal that goods Of this
sort cost so much"