Lesson: Altering a Wax

Lesson 6: Altering a Wax
One way to add variety to your production pieces is to alter them in the wax form. When they are wax, you can resize rings, add texture to pieces, and connect parts together easier than in the metal.
Ways to alter the wax:
• Put in a texture!
• Carve grooves, add bumps!
• Drill pilot holes for stone settings
• Meld 2 pieces together to create a different piece.

To add texture: Use the burs, files, tools etc.
To connect elements together: Use a thin knife-style tip, slip between the parts you want to connect. Add additional wax to seal the seam. Remove any additional wax.
To size a ring larger:
• Cut with an Xacto knife along the back of the ring or at a good breaking point in the pattern.
• Slide the wax onto a steel ring mandrel to the correct size. Melt extra wax into the gap.
• File and sand the wax to match rest of ring.
• If necessary, redo any patterns.
• If the gap is wide enough, or the ring has an all around pattern, it may be easiest to cut a piece out of a second wax that is the correct size to fit the gap and melt the edges together with hot wax tool.
To size a ring smaller:
• Cut with an Xacto knife along the back of the ring or at a good breaking point in the pattern.
• Slide the wax onto a steel ring mandrel to the correct size.
• Hold the wax tight around the mandrel. The ends of the wax should be overlapping.
• Use the Xacto to cut away the overlapping area.
• Melt the ends of the wax together.
• If necessary, add in extra wax.
• File and sand to match the rest of the ring.
• Redo any patterns that got melted.