19/03/2018 - World Skills Practice
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So today was not technically part of a module, but I wanted to write it up somewhere.
What we're doing is getting up to speed on a couple of things in case we want to enter the "World Skills" competition. This is a high level, timed competition (think Masterchef for jewellers) aimed at students & apprentices. Winners at national rounds go on to compete internationally. We were given a past years technical drawing to work from and a small piece of gilding metal from which all the components would be cut (except a tiny length of chenier tube). The one thing we had not encountered before, was A Jour cutting, the removal of material from the rear of a diamond setting in order to allow in maximum light. The first photo shows examples of many different A Jour shapes. The standard (as defined in this exercise) is a square, but hexagons are also commonly used for pave setting. The second photo is my attempt. |
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Things were going well, until I followed Dauvit's advice for inserting the chenier tube.
His method was as follows:
Following these instructions, the burr got caught underneath the gallery and ruined the back of the curved sheet.
A total right off.
Now this is not actually the way I would have done it, and my way does not involve any burrs to loose control of.
This is how I would have done it:
Despite the total failure of today, I have entered the London heat (unfortunately I was too slow and Birmingham was totally full).
His method was as follows:
- Estimate the curvature of the front sheet.
- Solder this to the flat gallery.
- Burr out two channels of the appropriate size.
- Insert and solder the tube.
Following these instructions, the burr got caught underneath the gallery and ruined the back of the curved sheet.
A total right off.
Now this is not actually the way I would have done it, and my way does not involve any burrs to loose control of.
This is how I would have done it:
- Estimate the curvature of the front sheet.
- Solder the tube into position on the flat gallery.
- Adjust the curvature of the front sheet to fit over the tube.
- Solder the front sheet onto the tube and gallery.
Despite the total failure of today, I have entered the London heat (unfortunately I was too slow and Birmingham was totally full).
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Something else that's not related to this module.
I took my salt & pepper pots along to a Tolkien Society meeting and they got a write up in the society's newsletter (Amon Hen, issue 207). |
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