Crafting Titanium Jewelry

There are two- (2) ways to hand craft titanium from here:

1. The die set for forming is made - this is a lengthy process taking up to a week of full time work (very few of our pieces are made with a die). An original is made in copper and set up for die sinking into a hardened steel block, then a male die form is ground to fit the female half of the die (with clearance), then we apply some heat treatment and fittment for press tool.

2. Hand punches are used for a hand-made piece - hand-beaten into wooden blocks to give the form (Phillip, our head craftsman, prefers a die over hand work but it is not possible to make dies for everything).

The wooden block is carved out to produce the "hole" shape for each design. These are made for the prototype.

Cutting - Crafting Of Titanium

We scan the prototype cutting profile into our computer and tidy image ready for CAD CAM work.

We then program the cutting path so that our cuts are made for maximum effect. From there we set up the cutting machine and cut a block of .5mm titanium sheets (sandwiched between two- (2) plates of steel bolted together).

Acid Etch Edges

Philip will then acid etch the cut edge to remove brass inclusions from the cut pieces. Following this the pieces are tumbled for forty- (40) hours.

Forming

Depending on the volume of pieces to make, the forming is done in two- (2) ways:

With low volumes we hand beat form. We first put creases where the detail of legs, eyes etc are to be on the face side then turn over and use round punches to stretch and form up the profile of the finished item in a wooden form block.

High volume work requires us pressing the cut pieces in a 3 ton kick press with die set. Some designs are pressed first then tumbled, others are tumbled then pressed.

Drilling, Buffing & Coloring

Next in the process of crafting the titanium is drilling for attachments (catches and the like) is undertaken at this point. This highly precise work is.......click here for last page.