Precious Metal Clay is a fairly new material where you obtain something rather like modelling clay, and mould it like kiddies clay. Then after it dries out, it can be cooked, and the polymer binder burns off, leaving a precious metal powder to sinter together to form a solid metal object. This is most commonly done with jewellery metals, gold, silver and sterling silver. There are other options too, like bronze and possibly stainless steel. The fine silver (99.5% silver) clay can be fired with a blow torch, while the others need a kiln.
Now, my interest in making jewellery is, frankly, nil. However, there are other things that can be done with the stuff, so I thought I'd investigate the possibility of making some pen parts from the clay. Particularly a pen clip and a decal to go on the end of a pen cap. Trying to get an Anglo-Saxon theme to the clip decoration, I ended up with this from bronze PMC:
(The CP on the decal is for 'Chestnut Pens')
It seems the material has possibilities... But for bronze it needs a kiln, and the firing cycle is
room temp -> 350C for 30 mins to burn off the binder,
back to room temp, cover with coconut charcoal,
room temp->810C, dwell for 20 mins,
ramp to 830C for 30 mins, dwell 30 minutes then natural cool to room temp.
Not possible for someone without a kiln. The course ends 17 December. Guess what Tracy wants for Christmas!
Regards,
Richard.
