Lost Wax Caster UK

Can anyone recommend a good lost wax caster (to sterling silver) in the UK
who will be willing to work with a beginner who has carved some waxes but
isn't sure what process to follow now? I'd like to go to a company where
they keep the moulds so I can reorder small amounts when I need them!

Charlie.

i know of a guy here in the US...

Have you tried the British Jewellers Association?
http://www.bja.org.uk
Click product search. type in 'castings'
Also Cooksons or some other bullion dealer may be able to put you in touch
with a suitable caster. Worth a phone call.
Hope this helps
Ben Smith

"Charlie" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend a good lost wax caster (to sterling silver) in the UK
who will be willing to work with a beginner who has carved some waxes but
isn't sure what process to follow now? I'd like to go to a company where
they keep the moulds so I can reorder small amounts when I need them!

Charlie.

Charlie wrote:
Can anyone recommend a good lost wax caster (to sterling silver) in theUK
who will be willing to work with a beginner who has carved some waxes but
isn't sure what process to follow now? I'd like to go to a company where
they keep the moulds so I can reorder small amounts when I need them!

Charlie.

Not that I have used any..........
(I may have some 'old' names tucked away in files - not so easily
accessable as I have not had any need for their services)

BUT the net gives you some names & a lot of practical/technical info

- start from

http://www.gifts-ideas.co.uk/jewellery.html

http://www.beechcast.com/process.php

http://www.4castmetals.co.uk/products.htm

http://www.luntscastings.co.uk/about_us.htm

http://www.nunn-and-rossiter-casting.com/index.htm

http://www.vipadesigns.co.uk/vipa/services.asp

Let us know if/when you have found a good one!

regards
norwick uk

"Charlie" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend a good lost wax caster (to sterling silver) in the UK
who will be willing to work with a beginner who has carved some waxes but
isn't sure what process to follow now? I'd like to go to a company where
they keep the moulds so I can reorder small amounts when I need them!

-------------------

Go to the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham and walk into a couple of them and
ask.

There are dozens within two hundred yards of the 'clock tower'.

I've used three or four now, they're all reasonably helpful and most will
do reasonably small runs.

Don't bother with the big factories, but there are plenty of small casting
houses there with three or four people working in them.

--
William Black

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland
I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate
All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach
Time for tea.

Thanks, I've already googled and so forth but was really looking for a
personal recommendation. Obviously I'm not too keen on sending my first
precious babies away to just anyone in case they don't come back or
something!

Charlie.

"norwick" wrote in message
...

Charlie wrote:
Can anyone recommend a good lost wax caster (to sterling silver) in theUK
who will be willing to work with a beginner who has carved some waxes but
isn't sure what process to follow now? I'd like to go to a company where
they keep the moulds so I can reorder small amounts when I need them!

Charlie.

Not that I have used any..........
(I may have some 'old' names tucked away in files - not so easily
accessable as I have not had any need for their services)

BUT the net gives you some names & a lot of practical/technical info

- start from

http://www.gifts-ideas.co.uk/jewellery.html

http://www.beechcast.com/process.php

http://www.4castmetals.co.uk/products.htm

http://www.luntscastings.co.uk/about_us.htm

http://www.nunn-and-rossiter-casting.com/index.htm

http://www.vipadesigns.co.uk/vipa/services.asp

Let us know if/when you have found a good one!

regards
norwick uk

Thanks, I guess I might just have to do this! I was really after personal
recommendations as I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for in a casting
house! Being entirely self taught makes me feel like I'm going to walk in
and ask some stupid questions and be laughed at because I don't entirely
understand!

Charlie.

"William Black" wrote in message
...

"Charlie" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend a good lost wax caster (to sterling silver) in the UK
who will be willing to work with a beginner who has carved some waxes but
isn't sure what process to follow now? I'd like to go to a company where
they keep the moulds so I can reorder small amounts when I need them!

-------------------

Go to the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham and walk into a couple of them and
ask.

There are dozens within two hundred yards of the 'clock tower'.

I've used three or four now, they're all reasonably helpful and most will
do reasonably small runs.

Don't bother with the big factories, but there are plenty of small casting
houses there with three or four people working in them.

--
William Black

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland
I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate
All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach
Time for tea.

"Charlie" wrote in message
...
Thanks, I guess I might just have to do this! I was really after personal
recommendations as I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for in a casting
house! Being entirely self taught makes me feel like I'm going to walk in
and ask some stupid questions and be laughed at because I don't entirely
understand!

--------------------

Don't worry about that.

As you may have noticed from some of the recent posts on this group, things
are bad in the bespoke precious metal jewellery field at the moment.

One thing about of using a small casting house in Birmingham is that you may
be asked to supply your own metal, but Cookson's big warehouse/bullion
sales counter is only ever a couple of hundred yards away and you can buy
casting grain silver (or gold) from them.

Because the big jewellery school is in the area, and so loads of start-up
studios also, the various small workshops are used to people putting their
noses around the door and asking for a small job to be done, and I've never
yet met anyone rude or too busy to take the time with beginners, as longas
you're serious.

And if you're feeling really ambitious the Walsh's, the tool and equipment
suppliers, will sell you a complete investment casting system built into a
bench unit for about three and a half thousand quid, and they'll throw in a
course on how to use it...

--
William Black

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland
I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate
All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach
Time for tea.

I sent the following to a list that was discussing and worried about the
price of Silver going up. Someone suggested they should buy bars of
Silver instead of Silver Wire as an investment for the future. My reply was:

I tell my students that even if Silver is $20.00 the best investment is
to buy it and make it into jewelry. And it always will be. After all you
can buy and an ounce of Silver, let us say it goes to $20.00, and you
make four pieces of jewelry out of it. Then you sell them for $20.00
each, or a total of $80.00. I can easily make four pieces worth $20.00
each in less than an hour. So, take your hourly rate of one hour out of
the $80.00. Let us say you want to make $30.00 an hour, so now the
silver is worth, $50.00 an ounce. I do not believe it will get to $50.00
an ounce and stay there in our life time. You could take out a dollar or
two for supplies and solder, but it will not effect the profit margin
that much.

There are too many mines sitting on a bunch of silver in Colorado that
are gearing up and can make a good profit at $10.00 an ounce, according
to a mine owner I talked to a year or so ago. During the Hunt brothers
run on Silver, I predicted that it would go to $40.00 and fall like a
rock back down to about $6.00. I was wrong, it fell down to almost $4.00
and stayed there for years. I told all my friends and relatives, if you
have Silver and want to make money on it, hold on to it, but if it gets
close to $40.00 and falls $1.00, sell it all. Most of them did.

But, I also had many friends, against my advice, buy Silver in the
$20.00 and lost a lot. They should have learned to make jewelry!

I personally do think, if you want to make jewelry, that buying wire and
sheet, and solder, for sure, that buying it will be a greater value than
buying bars and bullion. If you have a bar, you have to go to a lot of
work making it to something else than a bar. And a bar will only sell
for what people are willing to buy a bar for, and there will be
thousands of people selling the same kind of bar. Turn the wire into
your jewelry and only one person, will have your jewelry to sell, and
you can put any price that you want on it. The price will not be set by
a bunch of real rich people that can influence the market, make the
money, and the rest of peons, buying less that 1,000 ounces will be the
losers, again.

It is wrong to think that "wire" would only be bought back as
"scrap", too. Scrap implies that it would be bought back at 50% to 75%
of its current value. That is not true, it can be sold back at the same
price as bullion.

But, it is correct that if you sell it back as bullion you still can
lose. If silver is at $10.00 and ounce and you buy a 10 ounce bar, how
much money do you make it it goes to $12.00 an ounce and you sell it.
$2.00 an ounce? No, during the Hunt brother days, when everyone thought
they were commodities brokers, at least Silver investors, if Silver was
$10.00 an ounce and going up, there was no place to buy it for $10.00 an
ounce. They would want at least $11.00 an ounce if not more. Then if
it went to $12.00 an ounce and you went back to the same people you
bought it for, they want to make money on it, so they were only buying
it for $1.00 or two under the spot price.

It is true that Silver has the least "down side" of just about anything
we can invest our money in, but if you want to maximize your profits,
buy it and make it into jewelry!

Don Norris
learnsilver.com

hi there, i do a lot of wax casting myself, im based in wales and i can
give yuo two companies you could get in touch with. Euro Cast is a good
company and the guy who runs the place is very helpful, he will give
you advise from how to make good wx castings all the way through to how
to polish your work. VIPER castings is also very good to, same friendly
one to one service, and both companies will create master mold (thats
what you want, one mold then you can ring up and order as many as you
want and only pay for the silver/gold), my email is
if you cant find them, il give you the addresses
and phone numbers for both.