Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1912-04-26
SOLID GOLD rings
Some Are Stamped Out with a
Die, Some Cut from Tubes,

BONE, INTO WHICH THE PAT.
TERN SINKS As THOUGH PRESS.
Ed INTO MATCHMAKING THE
MoLDS.
Cuttlefish bone Is familiar to most
people. as 1t Is seen thrust between
the bars Of a bird cage for birds to
peck at. Birds clean their beaks on
It. and they like to eat 1t. But cutie
fish bone has other and more interest
ing uses. It is used in the manufac-
ture of tooth powder and Of polishing
powder and in the making Of a pre-
pared food for birds. but perhaps the
most interesting Of its uses Is In the
making of molds In which to cast cold
rings.
Some gold rings are cast In tiny
TASKS containing molds of fine sand;
others are stamped out with die.
Wedding rings are made from drawn
tube of gold in which the rounded out
err shape of the ring Ia produced on
mandrei, the several sections thus
formed being then sawed off even
when finished and polished to form
perfect ring. But of the vast number
Of solid gold rings produced by man.
ufacturing jewellers, including rings to
be mounted with stones, IS per cent
are cast in cuttletish bone molds.
Such mold can be used but once.
and so the manufacturing jeweler
uses a lot Of cuttlefish bone. The
molds may be made in two. three.
four or five parts. according to the
elaborateness Of the ring to be mold
ed The bone serves both as flask and
as molding material.
Suppose the molder Is to make for
a ring comparatively simple in shape
a three part mold. He sits at 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 fin
est quality and finest texture Is used,
and such bone serves for this purpose
admirably. Under pressure of an OBJ
ject upon 1t this bone breaks down
perfectly and with no surrounding
fractures or assures. 1t takes an i'm
preston practically as perfect as a
plastic material would do, while at the
same time it stands up perfectly
around the impression made.
The molder takes cuttlefish bone
In it's familiar oval shape and with a
little sharp-toothed saw saws off the
tapering sides and the ends, leaving
a keystone shaped or an oblong block.
Then straight across he saws of one
end Of this block about quarter Of
it's 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
| divided into three parts.
He rubs the face of each of these
parts perfectly smooth on a meta!
plate set before him conveniently in
| the bench, and then the material is
ready for use as 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 delicate
ly 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 1t lies with half
its thickness projecting above the sur
! face Of the lower block, and now he
has mold of the ring complete ex-
cept for thu projecting head.
At this stage he picks up that end
piece of the bone that he had sawed
| off and presses that with it's smooth
| face down upon the rings head, SO
taking an impression Of that, and then
he has the mold complete, but with
the model ring inside of 1t.
Now he scores lightly this model
outside. 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 it together
again precisely as it should be. and
then he opens it and takes out the
pattern. and If anywhere the nodded
form should require touch Of smooth
ing re does that, and then, beginning
snail and opening out wider, he cuts
out in the inner sides of the two
hslves Of the big block from the bend
of the ring mold out to the end of the
block an opening, the gate. through
/ Yhich the molden 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 a dozen
or a dozen Of such molds together and
cut little channels inside from the
gate to each one Of the separate molds
/ within. and then when they pour the
gold they mold half dozen or doz-
en- rings at once.-New York Sun.
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