Step 10: Shaping and Polishing the Frames

Once fully pickled you can shape and prepare the frames for soldering to the back plate. If you have uniformly circular or oval silver clay coins, the easiest way to shape the frames is on a ring mandrel. Simply slide the frame onto the ring mandrel and give it a tap with a rawhide mallet to create a perfect round.

Bring your frame to the bench and, for a circular coin, place it back over the coin and spacer and make sure it fits. For an oval frame give it a gentle squeeze using your fingers to turn it from a circle into an oval before fitting it over the coin and spacer.

For irregular shapes use a pair of pliers to reform the frame until it sits snugly around the coin and spacer

Whatever shaped coins you have, in order to achieve a uniform gap between the coin and the frame across all six pieces, make sure that the spacer sits snugly all around the coin and that the frame sits snugly around the spacer.

It’s important to note that when placing your frames around the coins that the solder join on the frame must sit at the top or the bottom of the coin as you don’t want to accidentally run it later on when soldering the bracelet together.

Once you’re happy with the shape of your frames file off any excess solder from the join using a half round needle file on the inside, and a flat needle file on the outside. The inside edge will be difficult to get to once you’ve soldered the frame to the back plate so use your sanding sponges or sticks to remove any scratches and start to bring them up to a shine. You dont need to worry about the outside edge at this point; we’ll address that later. Polish the frames fully on the inside either by hand with a white polishing pad or with a pendant motor with a felt pendant point and tripoli. If you’re using a pendant motor don’t forget to fully clean off any residual polishing compound when you’re done either in an ultrasonic cleaner or with hot soapy water.

The final stage of preparing the frames is to make sure that the bottom edge is completely flat so that it sits flush against the back plate for soldering. Place a few drops of water onto some coarse emery paper on a flat surface and move the frame in circular motions over the paper (being very careful not to warp the shape in the process!). You’ll know when you have a flat surface as you will be able to see the scratchy texture all over the edge, and when you place the frame onto the backplate there will be no gaps or holes.