Today I’m going to show you a step by step guide in how to carve this simple wax ring.
And then I’ll cast it in silver just for fun.
Hey guys. I know there’s a lot of folks on lockdown out there right now and, let’s
face it, boredom bites! So I thought a nice ‘how-to’ style video might help.
A few weeks back a US publisher sent me these two books on Wax Carving. These are improved
quality reprints of previous editions which at the time sold for $50 each. Thankfully
these are much cheaper now and of course I’ve also managed to wangle a discount code for
my viewers. But more of that later if you’re interested.
These books are very much a step by step guide, with brief instructions and photographs to
teach the reader some basic wax carving skills. As wax carving is a skill I admire, with the
permission of the publisher, I’ll be taking you through the first exercise in the first
book.
Steps 1, 2 and 3 are easy enough. It’s simply a matter of taking a wax tube and cutting
this to size. Wax tubes can be purchased cheaply enough
online and I’d recommend going for hard wax for what follows.
Unfortunately I didn’t have any wax tubes, but I did have this carving wax to hand. It’s
great stuff as it can be machined, and that’s what I needed to do.
There… now I’m ready to start… Well, actually I’m up to Step 6.
Step 7 is about scribing more guidelines, 1 mm from the edges. I found a simple compass
worked well for this. I replaced the lead with a small nail.
Step 8 is a tricky one as it requires freehand skills
I skipped to step 9, drawing a tangent line across the top of the circular opening.
I then used the ring I made last time as a circle template to complete Step 8, but a
small coin would work just as well. Step 10 is also tricky. I took a thin piece
of card and matched up the guidelines, before scribing in a line. This gave me consistency
on all four markings. Step 11 involves sawing and I used a jeweller’s
saw, but a small hacksaw would work fine on this hard wax.
Step 12 is a real bravery test, using the saw to slice the two edges, cutting along
the guidelines made by the cardboard template. I then cleaned everything up a little with
some 120 grade sandpaper which for me took care of Step 13.
Step 14 had me remarking the lost guidelines. Step 15 is where the real shaping begins,
rounding all the sides to just shy of the guidelines using a coarse file. A small rasp
or some coarse sandpaper would work. But lucky me, I have none of the above.
Fortunately, this wax carves beautifully and simply scraping a sharp utility blade very
lightly over the surfaces shaves away nicely. And those tempted to write in a tell me how
dangerous this is, remember I’m going to be handling a thousand degree molten metal
in a moment. It does a pretty good job, but a coarse file
would have been more practical. Step 16 required a round file to expand the
central hole, presumably to finger size. Guess what I don’t have.
A small length of copper piping with sandpaper did the job for me, and also took care or
Step 17. From here on the Steps are a little samey
and in honesty, for me, the images were also a bit samey and vague. Being small and black
& white, there wasn’t a great deal of clarity. But it wasn’t rocket science. It was simply
a matter a taking rough to fine files and filing to final shape – though I had no
such files. Fortunately I had a stick!
With course sandpaper this would have been better, but 120 grit did get the job done
for me, just a little slowly. Firstly I smoothed out the edges.
Then I bevelled the top at 45 degrees. Then I followed the edges, again trying to
bevel at 45 degrees. Then it was a case of bevelling each bevel
line I’d created. Now it was getting there… it was rounding
off, but the upper corners were a little square, there were still some guidelines showing and
it places it looked a little thick throughout. So a sanding frenzy ensued.
Sure enough something ring shaped finally appeared.
I then took some 240 grit paper and rubbed everything down, smoothing away the sanding
lines. I followed this with 400 grit paper before reaching my favourite part, rubbing
everything down with Lady’s Stockings. The fun part, of course, isn’t the rubbing…
it’s how you manage to get hold of the stockings. But this genuinely smooths the wax a treat.
And that’s not bad. It needs a little more rubbing with Stockings, and whilst fishnets
are my preference, a high denier is more ideal to remove those tiny blemishes and scratches.
Now you might think this ring is a little bland, but it’s more about the exercise.
It more about learning to work the wax, and the book does suggest how this ring can be
adapted into more interesting patterns. There’s also useful tips on all sorts of things, including
casting, as well as plenty of more ring and jewellery making exercises.
And whilst I should have hollowed out this ring to lighten it, I opted to have a go at
casting it and a heavy beast of a ring. Nice…
You know, I’d forgotten how well wax casts. It’s pristine. A very crisp casting.
Ten minutes in boiling water with a spoonful of citric acid removes the oxidisation.
Now it’s just a case of sanding with ever finer grades of paper.
Shiny! That’s a stonking, heavy, silver ring that
would probably cost a fortunate at a jeweller’s store. But it’s cheaply cast at home thanks
to wax and the instructions in this book. These two books are available online directly
from the publisher and I’ll place a link in the description. The US based publisher
is happy to distribute to pretty much anywhere in the world, but postal charges will come
into play. To help in this regard, the publishers have
kindly provided a discount code for you guys which is VOG5. This gives a discount of $5
on either book and if you buy both, it doubles up to $10.
I genuinely enjoyed this wax making process and found it quite relaxing. The books, whilst
a tad vague in places, are simple enough to follow with many examples to help a would-be
wax carver learn the basics. Anyway guys, I hope you enjoyed this how-to
video. Why not give it a try yourselves and let me know how you get on.
So that’s it for now guys. Take care and thanks for watching.