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Old Cross?


kac

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That’s kind of you to say. I’m not really compared to my wife. Lol! I was a jewelry caster and gold and silversmith for a number of years.

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It is possible it was spin cast and the masters were sand cast. The back has the sand cast texture making me think they put the back on the drag side of the frame then packed the top. I have done similar technique on belt buckles to give the recesses a nice texture. Putting the pattern face up in a sand mold helps prevent washout when the metal is poured. Other pics are some castings I had done using delft clay in a similar mold but delft clay has a much finder texture. 

Cool you have done jewelry work BeachHunter, now I have someone I can try to pick their brains :)

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Always willing to share in any way I can help out. I just gave away my burnout oven and centrifugal caster, flasks and a bunch of other casting equipment. I now have giver’s remorse. Lol!

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The air bubbles on the back remind me of an investment casting without a vacumn unit to pull out air bubbles. So if the air bubbles are only present on one side then that might give a clue to which casting method was used.

Very nice job on the castings by the way!

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The bubbles could be washout from the sand casting. Good chance they just sand cast these period and rather than repack both sides of the frame they kept using the same mold. I tend to lean towards sand cast for a couple reasons. Back is extremely flat. Front has no under cuts and there is a substantial draft angle on the surfaces. Investment casting and rubber molds the is no need to worry about draft angles.

Thanks on the castings. I use a small sla printer to make my patterns and masters so those objects I made in my cad software. Why I envy the craftsmanship on the cross as it was hand made and the symmetry is really good.

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Last post on this, I was wrong and BeachHunter was right. I thought it was pewter and when I was comparing the acid test on the cross to another piece the acid turned a bright red which means its higher than 925. Being silver it then it had to be lost wax cast and not sand.

Still can't seem to find any more info on it since the local coin dealer doesn't touch religious artifacts. Not sure if he would burst into flames handling it or not so I guess I have to keep looking around. 

Any idea when they started to use steel or iron jump rings? About the only clue I have.

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23 hours ago, kac said:

Last post on this, I was wrong and BeachHunter was right. I thought it was pewter and when I was comparing the acid test on the cross to another piece the acid turned a bright red which means its higher than 925. Being silver it then it had to be lost wax cast and not sand.

Still can't seem to find any more info on it since the local coin dealer doesn't touch religious artifacts. Not sure if he would burst into flames handling it or not so I guess I have to keep looking around. 

Any idea when they started to use steel or iron jump rings? About the only clue I have.

The Steel jump ring may have been added at a later date. Hard to obtain sterling silver findings if pre-internet.

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