Tag Archives: jewelry

Saving Money by Recycling Your Own Scrap Silver

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It’s like getting silver sheet for 1/3 off the price.

I use a lot of silver when I make jewelry: fine (100%) silver, sterling (92.5%) silver, and Argentium (93.5%) silver. Although I used to work primarily with silver wire, I’ve begun doing more with sheets of silver. I generally use 22 gauge sheet to make pendants and 26 gauge to make earrings.

The Cost of Metal

As I type this, I can buy 22 gauge sterling silver sheet for $4.36 per square inch. That price varies wildly — just a few months ago it was about 30% less. More recently, it was about 10% more. You can track precious metal prices online in a bunch of places, but I track it on the Rio Grande website, since that’s where I buy my metals.

Silver Prices
Here’s a chart of the silver prices, which went nuts back in June 2020. It looks like it’s settling down now. You can track metal prices at the Rio Grande website.

The price I pay is a combination of market price (as shown in the graph above) and the type of processing applied to the metal. Sheet metal will cost more per ounce than just plain old lumps of silver. After all, the folks doing the processing have to get paid for their work, no? That’s value added pricing.

The Value of Scrap

Rio Grande has a scrap metal program that will take my scrap silver and pay me 85% of market value for it. So if I send them an ounce of fine silver and the current market price is $24/ounce, they’ll pay me $20.40/ounce. The values are different, of course, for sterling and Argentium. They do gold and platinum, too, but I don’t use much gold or any platinum in my work (yet) because of the crazy high price.

I’ve taken advantage of the recycling program at least twice. I save every single scrap of silver and try hard to keep the fine silver separate from the alloys. When in doubt about a scrap, I throw it in with the alloys. The first time, I got about $50 back. The second time I had more scrap and got over $100 back. I take it as a credit on my account because I generally spend well over $1,000 on metals every year anyway.

Recycling My Own Scrap

The first step was to prep the crucible. I posted this video on Twitter to share the sound of the cooling crucible.

Recently, however, I watched a few “YouTube University” videos that showed jewelers making their own wire and sheet from scrap. To do this, I’d need a good, hot torch (which I already had), a small crucible, a mold, and some borax (which I already had). I decided to give it a try. Invested about $40 in the equipment I didn’t have and started melting silver.

Ingot
My second try at an ingot.

It wasn’t as easy as it looked in the video — what else is new, right? — but I did manage to get a decent little ingot on my second try. (I melted down the first try so no loss.)

Malachite Pendant
The backing for this malachite cabochon was made with silver I recycled.

I rolled it through my rolling mill, periodically annealing it to soften it back up, and got it down to a sheet roughly between 21 and 22 gauge. I textured the resulting piece, then cut out a shape for a backing plate for a cabochon pendant. I added prongs and a hole for a bail, cleaned and polished the piece, and set the stone. It looked great (if I do say so myself).

The interesting thing about my recycled silver is that it’s a higher percentage of fine silver than Sterling (92.5%), but not nearly as high as fine silver (100%). Because it also contains some Argentium (93.5%), it might have some of the tarnish resistance properties of that alloy. Legally, I can stamp it 925 because that’s the minimum purity of the piece.

Doing the Math

Yesterday, I made two more ingots. It took quite a while because I was aiming for larger ingots and, for the second one, was trying to melt larger pieces of scrap. I actually had to stop and refill my torch to get the job done.

Ingots
Here are the two ingots I made yesterday. They weigh at least an ounce each. The darker one has been through the rolling mill about 20 times and is dark because it’s freshly annealed in this photo. The larger ingot has not been rolled at all yet.

I started wondering whether it was really worth the effort. So this morning, I did the math.

Suppose I want 22 gauge sterling silver sheet. I looked up the price on Rio Grande, where I would buy it, and came up with the number $4.36/square inch or $31.14/ounce. (Remember the added value of turning silver into sheet.)

Now let’s look at how much I’d get back from Rio if I recycled an ounce of silver. With a current market price of $24/ounce and a rate of 85%, I’d get $20.40/ounce. Because a square inch of 22 gauge silver weighs .14 ounces, the refund would equate to $2.86/square inch.

In summary:

Descriptionper sq inper oz
Cost of of 22 gauge silver bought new$4.36$31.14
Value of equivalent amount of recycled silver$2.86$20.40
Amount I save by recycling my own silver$1.50$10.74

Of course, it’s even more cost effective to recycle my own silver now that Rio Grande has instituted a $50 recycling fee (beginning October 15, 2020). This makes it completely impractical to send my silver back to them — I’d never have enough silver to make this worthwhile. In hindsight, it’s a good thing that I learned how to make ingots before this fee came into effect. I’m ready for it.

Western Washington Wander 2020: The Blacksmithing Weekend

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Two days of heating and hammering metal.

I have been interested in blacksmithing — heating and hammering metal to shape it — for a while now. In a sense, it’s related to the metalsmithing work I do with my silver and copper jewelry, but rather than cold working relatively small pieces of soft (annealed) metals, blacksmithing involves hot working larger, harder metal: steel. So last month, when the Tacoma Metal Arts Center announced the Blacksmithing Weekend course in the Seattle area, I immediately signed up for it and then began planning my vacation around it.

And that’s why I was in Eatonville on Saturday morning after a terrible night’s sleep, following Google’s directions to a five-acre farm with a huge shop on the outskirts of town.

The Setup

Mike on YouTube

Mike has a YouTube channel to provide information about the equipment he makes. He’s also interested in doing tutorials. If you’re reading this because you searched for “blacksmithing,” be sure to check out his YouTube channel, Mathewson Metals, and give him feedback about what you’d like to see. Oh, and please do subscribe; that’ll help motivate him to make more content.

The class was taught by Mike Mathewson of Mathewson Metals. Mike has been blacksmithing for years and has done all kinds of work, from the small projects we created over the next two days and tools to much larger furniture and architectural installations. He’s also the inventor and manufacturer of several different simple, affordable, propane-powered forges, one of which was in use for the whole weekend.

Forge
This is the MetalSmith Propane Forge that we used in class. You can see a video of it in action here.

The class was conducted on one side of his 48 x 72 foot shop building, with the big sliding door on that end wide open to let in lots of air. (The air wasn’t anything we could call fresh, though, since the wildfire smoke situation only worsened over the weekend.) He had the one forge set up as well as several anvils and vices, with dozens of hammers in all shapes and sizes to choose from. He used an amazingly quiet Jet metal saw to cut the 3/8 inch mild steel rods we used for our projects and I watched it in awe nearly every time he ran it. He had lots of other equipment that we didn’t use, like an old Little Giant power hammer and various cutting and finishing tools. The place was a bit of a mess outside our work area; he had only been in the space a little more than a year and he was still figuring out the final organization he wanted. He spent a lot of time organizing while we worked on our own, staying nearby in case we had questions or needed help.

Because of COVID-19, class size was limited to four students. We started with three: me, Travis, and Gary. Gary made a phone call while I went back to my rig to get a flannel shirt. When I returned he was apologizing and saying goodbye; his wife was ill and he needed to get back home. So that left two of us for the class, which was fine with me.

Travis already had a forge and anvil and a bunch of other equipment at home. He was serious about learning blacksmithing and wasn’t moving forward with his self-taught skills. I hoped he’d get an “aha moment” that helped him break through whatever was blocking him in his own shop.

Of course, I wasn’t very serious at all — I just wanted to try it out — so if there were any situations where we had to work one at a time, I usually let Travis go first. As the weekend wore on, we developed a good working rhythm when we had to share a tool; while I heated my piece, he’d work on his and then we’d switch positions. Very efficient. I’m not sure if it would have gone that smoothly with three of us.

The Projects

Mike has obviously taught this many times before. He’s a good, patient teacher who explains everything clearly before we start work. He uses visual aids when necessary to illustrate processes. He is encouraging and never tells you when you get something wrong — unless neither of us did? Instead, he points out a way you can do it better or easier to guide you on the right path.

Nail Hook
Here’s the nail hook project. From left to right: bar we started with (this is actually Gary’s, which he never did more than mark with dots to identify as his), my version, Travis’s version, and the model we were going for. I made my nail part too long so I made my twist a lot shorter — too short? — and ended up with a sort of wimpy hook.

We did four projects, all of which were made from varying lengths of round or square 3/8 inch mild steel rod: a nail hook, a pair of blacksmithing tongs, a fork, and a spoon. Each project taught and gave us an opportunity to try or practice specific skills. For example, the nail hook got us to hammer one end into a point, hammer the other end into a paddle, twist the rod, and then bend the rod in a variety of ways. The blacksmithing tongs had us create two rectangular paddles, bend the paddles to be able to grip 3/8 inch steel rods, bend the rods into a scissors shape, and then rivet a pivot point between them. You’d start a project thinking “how the hell am I going to be able to make that?” and Mike would break it down, step-by-step until you were done.

I have to admit that I was surprised that I was able to “keep up” with the class — especially given that my classmate already had some experience and I had none. Well, that’s not actually true. A lot of my silver/copper forming techniques did apply to the steel work. I think that’s what allowed me to give most of my shapes a decent form and not embarrass myself.

My Blacksmithing Projects
My four projects. They need to be wire-brushed to take the fire scale off.

The class ran two full days — 10 AM to 6 PM — with just 30 to 45 minutes for lunch. In that time we finished three of the projects and had gotten a good start on the last one, the spoon, which only required that we finish it to match the fork. Travis will probably finish his up this coming weekend; mine will likely remain as is forever.

Fringe Benefits

Pigs
A look over the fence at the pigs, which were actually quite large and didn’t stink.

A fringe benefit for me at the class is that Mike kindly let me park in his yard overnight, so I didn’t have to scramble (again) for a place to stay. He had me back into a space near his pig yard, then moved the two pigs out so I wouldn’t be bothered by their grunting. The space behind my rig was perfect for my pups to go out and take a pee first or last thing in the day.

Blackberries
There were a ton of huge, fresh blackberries along the road in front of Mike’s house.

We also went for walks out on the road in front of his home. The first walk is when I spotted the blackberries, which were mostly ripe and ready for picking. I ate a few right off the bushes. Later, I asked for permission to pick them and filled an empty clamshell container (previously holding a pound of fresh dates) with the nicest blackberries I’d ever seen. I’ve been eating them with breakfast since then.

On to the Next Destination

When class was over, it was time for me to bug out. I had planned to stay at Dungeness Recreation Area near Port Angeles that night. It was over two hours away by car. I detest driving in unfamiliar areas at night, so the last half hour or so was brutal for me. We made it by just after 8 PM and I was very happy to back into a campsite in the forest.

How I Use a Rotary Tumbler

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It’s for a lot more than just making shiny rocks.

Lortone 3a Tumbler
This is a real workhorse and probably the bestselling tumbler out there. I think everything else is an imitation.

One of my most-used plug-in (as opposed to hand) jewelry making tools is a model 3A Lortone rotary tumbler. This is most commonly bought as an educational “toy” for kids — indeed, that’s how it’s categorized on Amazon.com. The idea is that kids can go rock hounding, put a bunch of rocks in this tumbler, and, a while later, have a bunch of shiny rocks to show off to family and friends.

Making Shiny Stones

Tumbling Media
National Geographic makes it easy by selling the four grits you need in a package. (I buy my grits from a lapidary shop.)

Polishing rocks is why I bought mine about 3 years ago. I bought it as a kit, with everything I needed to get started. It’s a good thing I did. While some folks seem to think that the tumbler does all the work, it’s the variety of grits you need to use as tumbling media to grind down the rough edges of the rocks and eventually bring them to a high polish.

The process takes about four weeks, during which time the tumbler operates pretty much nonstop. (This isn’t something you want running inside your house or apartment, folks.) Every week or so, you dump out all the rocks, water, and grit — but not down the drain! It can permanently clog your plumbing! — wash the rocks and tumbler thoroughly, and add the rocks and the next higher grit with water back to the tumbler. Then another week of rattling around in the rubber barrel before you repeat the process again. And again. If you have the right rocks (or combination of rocks) and do everything right, you wind up with randomly shaped shiny rocks after about a month of tumbling.

Interested in working with stones? You should check out Kingsley North, which sells all kinds of rough and polished rock and the equipment for working with it, including tumblers. You can get a good deal on a Lortone 3A rock tumbling kit there.

(If you’re really interested in rock tumbling, here’s a great article on RockTumbler.com: Rock Tumbler Instructions.)

I first ran mine with a combination of rose quartz (pink) and sodalite (blue) stones, got excellent results, and gave the stones away to kids shopping with their parents or others at venues where I sold my jewelry. It was a big hit. But because it took so long and because I have so much else going on in my life, that’s the only batch I did. I put the tumbler away.

Burnishing Polished Metal

As I learned more about jewelry making and started branching out to metalworking, I learned that tumblers like mine with different media could be used to burnish polished metal.

Stainless Steel Shot
An example of stainless steel shot like what I use for burnishing metal in my tumbler.

The media used for this process is stainless steel shot, which can be bought by the pound. It ain’t cheap, but it’s completely reusable. I use just a pound of it in my 3-pound tumbler. I add water and a bit of burnishing compound — although I’ve been told that a few drops of Dawn detergent does the same thing. I throw in the jewelry to be burnished, close up the barrel, shake it up a bit, and then put it on the tumbler for up to an hour. The jewelry that emerges is amazingly shiny — it I polished it properly to begin with. Whenever I do a batch of new jewelry, I throw in my rings and bracelets for a quick and easy refreshing.

Of course, I can’t do this with any jewelry that contains stones. Although some stones may survive, many others would not. It’s not worth taking a chance.

“Honing and Highlighting”

This past winter, I took a bunch of jewelry making classes in Tucson, AZ. One of the instructors told us about a product she uses to finish “antiqued” metal jewelry: Hone & Highlight.

Hone & Highlight
Yes, I lifted this artistic product photo from the Hone and Highlight website. I hope they don’t mind; I’m doing it to send them customers.

I tracked it down online. Hone and Highlight is a silicon carbide with ceramic tumbling media that gently rubs the chemically blackened metal to remove the color from high points and roughen up the metal just enough to give it a satin finish. You add it with the jewelry to be finished to a tumbler barrel, cover it with water, and add 2 drops of Dawn dish detergent. Then tumble for up to 24 hours.

(And no, I don’t know why everyone says to use Dawn but they do. They never say Palmolive or suggest some sort of generic. They always say Dawn. I buy Dawn.)

What I like about this product is that it gives my “antiqued” jewelry a consistent finish that I really like. It also keeps my hands clean. I’ll be frank: using a polishing pad to rub liver of sulfur off jewelry is a tedious, messy task that seldom gets consistent results. This never fails me. Best of all, I can do jewelry in batches, which makes good use of my time (and tumbler).

Again, I can’t use it with any jewelry that includes polished stones. Who knows what might happen to the stones?

Three Jobs, One Barrel?

I soon realized that with three different jobs I wanted to do with my tumbler, each job requiring different media, it might be handy to have more than one tumbler barrel. So I started shopping around for one.

Junky Tumbler
Spoiler alert! This is junk. Don’t buy it.

My search led me to Amazon (where else?). They had Lortone 3A tumbler barrels, but they weren’t cheap. They also had a Leegol 2-barrel tumbler with a very similar design. With a coupon, it wound up being cheaper than two Lortone barrels (without the tumbler). It seemed like a good deal — after all, I could be tumbling rocks in one barrel (keeping in mind that it ties up my tumbler for a full month) while burnishing or honing metal in another. So I bought it.

It arrived non-functional with a broken spare belt. I fiddled with it and got it running. But what interested me more was the fact that the barrels seemed to be compatible with my Lortone 3A. They had cheesier inner lids, but they worked. I had the extra barrels I wanted. And since I didn’t have any need to run two barrels at a time, I kept using the Lortone.

Leegol Fails the Test

Fast forward to this week.

I started wondering if I could make beads by using my tile saw to cut local obsidian slabs I had into roughly consistently sized rectangles, tumbling them for a polish, and then drilling them. This would be a project that took time and the sooner I started, the sooner I finished. So I got out my tile saw, cut a thick slab into strips, and then cut the strips into flattened squares. I grabbed all that, set it up in an empty tumbling barrel with the proper grit and some water, and put it on the double-barrel tumbler. I figured that I’d let it run around the clock (as it needed to for the rocks) and, if I needed to do another job with another barrel, I could add it to the running tumbler platform without disturbing the rocks or firing up the Lortone.

Makes sense, eh? Good use of equipment.

And it actually worked out like that, at least for a few days. I made some jewelry earlier this week and put it into a barrel with the honing media for about eight hours. Rocks and bracelets tumbled side by side. I pulled the bracelets off when they were “done” and the rocks kept rolling.

Until sometime Wednesday night.

On Thursday morning, when I went downstairs to let my pups out, the rock tumbling sound I’d become accustomed to hearing from my garage was oddly quiet. I checked. The tumblers motor was running but the barrel wasn’t spinning.

I plugged in the Lortone and got the rocks moving again.

Broken belt
This belt lasted fewer than four days.

Later, I brought the new tumbler upstairs and took it apart. The rubber belt had broken into several pieces. And the spare was broken, of course.

My lesson: You get what you pay for.

(Which is something I’ve known for a while but periodically choose to forget.)

I ordered new belts for the tumbler. They come in packs of 12, likely because they’re so crappy they don’t last more than a week each.

Today I ordered spare belts for my Lortone, too. It’s more than three years old and still on its original belt.