BOX OF ROCKS
MARROW BONE?
ANOTHER BONE?
The reddish stone in the middle of these rocks looked interesting, it Is smooth and shiny, so I took some to a rock shop and had them make a cabochon gemstone. It is 13mm x 11mm.
CABOCHON GEMSTONE
I put the box of rocks in the shed and the gemstone in a drawer and forgot about them for about a decade.
I came across them again and used the Internet to do some research. I learned that these rocks are fulgurites. They are made when lightning strikes the ground. The most interesting fulgurites are found in sand, usually on a beach.
The mountain in Arizona where I found these rocks is one of the most lightning-struck places in the USA. The strikes blasted and melted the sandstone outcroppings, creating the bone-shaped rock as the electricity discharged and the intense heat melted the "marrow" into reddish-pink fused silica.
Again, I mentally filed this information away as interesting, and stored away the rocks for some more years.
A few months ago, I mentioned all this to a friend who is sort of a faith healer and is quite aware of things most people do not experience. She is a pre-cog for earthquakes and has some interesting other-world abilities. Out of curiosity, I sent a sample of the fused silica to her, to she what she might say. She was amazed by the "energy" in the stone and encouraged me to take the cabochon out of the drawer and make a ring. She said it would assist with success, luck, and prosperity. Since those are attributes I can use more of, I decided to have a gold ring made.
The first jeweler said the ring would cost $2,400 to make, the second jeweler quoted $2,000. Both would take silver in trade for the gold and the labor, but only offered 80% of spot. Also, both wanted to charge me more than spot for the gold.
I decided to learn how to make the ring myself. I put an ad here on RealCent to trade silver from my treasure chest for gold at the G/S ratio. That worked OK, I got a fair deal on a 1992 gold Columbus 1/4oz coin and some scrap 14k and 18k rings.
I located a well-known silversmith who lives close to my town and negotiated a deal for him to teach me and use his shop and tools. He would take silver in trade for the additional gold shot I would need, and for his very reasonable $200 teaching fee.
I calculated the alloy I wanted to make, 17 Karat, using 71% gold, 14.5% silver, and 14.5% copper. This should have a rich gold color and be a bit harder than 18K. Monday this week, I went over to the silversmith's shop and began.
I had ordered several wax ring patterns. The one I wanted to use was kind of hollowed out on the inside, so it would take less gold to make the ring. I wanted a nice, heavy, substantial gold ring, so I melted one of the other wax patterns to fill in the hollows. The tool is used like a cross between a pen and a soldering iron. It melts and picks up a drop of wax which is then deposited where the build-up is required. The pattern was cut and stretched wider to fit my size 14 finger, and extra wax was added to fill the gap.
BUILDING UP THE WAX PATTERN
Extra channels for the molten gold are needed, to make sure the ring cavity in the investment plaster mold is quickly filled.
FINISHED WAX PATTERN
We mixed the plaster, put in under a vacuum dome to draw out the air bubbles and poured it into a steel cylinder surrounding the pattern to create the mold for the gold. Before the plaster set, we put it again under the vacuum dome to draw out the air bubbles. Two hours later, the mold was put in a 900F furnace to melt and vaporize out the wax, leaving the ring cavity for the molten gold. It stayed in the furnace at that temp overnight.
Tuesday morning, a propane/oxygen torch is used to melt the three metals
MELTING GOLD, SILVER & COPPER IN A CENTRIFUGAL CASTING CRUCIBLE
USING A CARBON ROD TO MIX THE ALLOY
After the molten PMs are well mixed, the spring is released on the centrifugal casting tool. In just an instant, the molten metal flies up the ramp in the crucible and enters the cavity in the mold. Before the tool stops spinning, the gold is hard again. We set the mold outside for 2 hours to cool. A hammer was used to break up the investment plaster to expose the new gold ring
A NEW RING, FRESH FROM THE MOLD
A jeweler's saw is used to cut away the sprue and channels. Using a set of increasingly fine files, the ring is cleaned and shaped. The cut away gold weighs 8.8 grams, about $320 worth of scrap gold.
FILING THE RING
The ring is hammered a bit to shape it and make it round on a mandrel. After hammering, it is annealed to relieve internal stresses in the metal, to prevent it from cracking.
ANNEALING GOLD
The ring is about half finished at this point. On the inside of the ring is some roughness and blemish. This area is ground with a high-speed, ball-tip rotary file, much like a dremel tool, to make an semi-random pattern to hide the imperfections.
HALFWAY DONE
Next, the ring is sanded with a rotary drum sander to remove the file marks. First pass is with about 150 grit, the second pass is done with about 300 grit. A soft polishing wheel is used with jewelers rouge to take out the sanding scratches and bring the gold to a lustrous polished finish.
The opening for the stone is carefully trimmed to allow the stone to just fit, with enough of a raised lip to hammer over the stone's sides to lock it in place. The world's smallest jackhammer is used to push the gold edge, 1/16th-inch at a time, locking the stone in place.
TINY JACKHAMMER USED TO LOCK THE STONE IN PLACE
And here is the finished ring.
The finished 17 Karat ring weighs 18.81 grams, the stone weighs 1.18 grams. It has 12.49 grams of .999 gold in the alloy. It required a day and a half of my time to make. At the times of the two trades, the value of the silver traded totaled $1,316.54. About $250 of that will be recouped by recycling the scrap gold.
I used a wire-making tool on one of the scrap channels to make some wire to be saved. It could be used as solder from the same alloy, if the ring should ever need repair, or resizing. The remaining 7.2 grams of 17K scrap will go to Market Harmony to be recycled.
My cost for the gold for the ring, and for the teacher was:
two 10oz Engelhard bars
twenty-four 1oz rounds and one 1oz bar
four Morgans
one Benjamin half
one Washington quarter
one Roosevelt dime;
plus a Mercury dime and another Roosie for the melt.
Treasure for treasure.
