The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1912-03-05
SOLID COLD RINGS
Some Are Stamped Out With a
Die, Some Cut From Tubes.
BUT MOST OF THEM ARE CAST

As Rule, They Are Formed In MoIds
of Cuttlefish Bone, Into Which the
Pattern Sinks as Though Pressed In
to Wax-Making the Molds.
Cuttlefish bone is familiar to most
people, as it is seen thrust between the
bars of bird cage for birds to peck at.
Birds clean their beaks on it. and they
like to eat it. But cuttlefish bone has
other and more interesting uses. 1t
is used in the manufacture of tooth
powder and of polishing powder and
in the making of prepared food for
birds. but perhaps the most interest
ing of its uses is in the making of
molds in which to cast gold rings.
Some gold rings are cast in tiny
TASKS containing molds Of fine sand;
others are stamped out with a die.
Wedding rings are made from a drawn
tube of gold in which the rounded out
er shape of the ring is produced on a
mandrel, the several sections thus
formed being then sawed off even
when finished and polished to form a
perfect ring. But of the vast number
Of solid gold rings produced by manu-
featuring jewelers., including rings to
be mounted with stones, rs per cent
are cast in cuttlefish bone molds.
Such a mold can be used but once,
and so the manufacturing jeweler uses
lot of cuttlefish bone The molds
may be made in two, three, four or
five parts, according to the elaborate
ness of the ring to be nodded The
bone serves both as flask and as mold
ing material
Suppose the molder is to make for a
ring comparatively simple in shape a
three part mold. He sits at a bench
on which he has brass patterns of the
rings to be nodded. The manufacture
ing jeweler has hundreds. many hun
dreds, Of these pattern rings, to which
he is continually adding designs.
Handy by the molder has box of
cuttlefish bone. Only bone of the finest
quality and finest texture is used, and
such bone serves for this purpose ad-
mirably. Under pressure Of an object
upon it this bone breaks down perfect
ly and with no surrounding fractures
or assures. 1t takes an impression prac-
tically as perfect as a plastic mate
rial would do, while at the same time
it stands up perfectly around the i'm
preston made.
The mOlder takes a cuttlefish bone
in its familiar oval shape and with a
little sharp toothed saw saws off the
tapering sides and the ends, leaving
keystone shaped or an oblong block
Then straight across he saws off one
end of this block about quarter of
its length from the end, and then the
larger piece he saws through from side
to side midway of its thickness. Now
he has the original block Of bone di-
vided into three parts.
He rubS the face of each of these
parts perfectly smooth on metal plate
set before him conveniently In the
bench, and then the material is ready
for use as a mold. The molder turns
one of the two bigger blocks over on
the bench with the smoothed surface
up and picks up the model ring. and
with a deft, sure touch he presses this
model down for half its thickness all
around into the delicately fragile but
evenly textured bone-this in the
case of a three piece mold at one end
of the block, leaving the head or cap
Of the ring projecting beyond the end
edge. Next he picks up the other half
Of this block. turns its smooth face
down and presses that down upon the
ring as it lies with half its thickness
projecting above the surface of the
lower block. and now he has a mold of
the ring complete except for the pro-
Jecting head.
At this stage he picks up that end
piece of the bone that he had sawed
off and presses that with its smooth
face down upon the rings head, so tax
ing an impression of that, and then he
has the mold complete, but with the
model ring inside of it.
Now he scores lightly this model out
side, across its side edges, and he scores
lines from the top block to the sides,
so that when he has taken the mold
apart he can put 1t together again pre-
cisely as it should be. and then he
opens 1t and takes out the pattern. and
if anywhere the nodded form should
require a touch of smoothing he does
that. and then. beginning small and
opening out wider. he cuts out in the
inner sides of the two halves of the
big block from the bend of the ring
mold out to the end of the block an
opening. the gate. through which the
molten gold will be poured when the
ring is nodded. Then he puts the
pieces of the mold together again and
binds them with soft wire. and there's
your cuttlefish bone mold perfect and
complete.
Sometimes they bind half dozen or
a dozen of such molds together and
cut little channels inside from the gate
to each one of the separate molds with
In. and then when they pour the gold
they mold half a dozen or a dozen
rings at once.-New York Sun.