METHOD OF MANUFACTURING JEWELS OF GOLD OR PLATINUM OR THEIR ALLOYS

• US 3,686,734 A
• Filed: 06/29/1970
• Issued: 08/29/1972
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Jacques Lenfant, Maurice (La Rochette Near Melun Labarte
• Original Assignee: Jacques Lenfant, Maurice (La Rochette Near Melun Labarte
• Inventors: Labarte, Maurice (La Rochette near Melun, Lenfant, Jacques
• Primary Examiner(s): Campbell, John F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Di Palma, Victor A.
• Application Number:
  US05/050,811
• Time in Patent Office: 792 Days
• Field of Search: 29/160.6 63/3,9,11
• US Class Current: 29/896.41
• CPC Class Codes: A44C 27/00 Making jewellery or other personal adornments
• CPC Class Codes: B21F 43/00 Making bands, e.g. bracelets, or wire making chains B21L; using looms D03D
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/4959 Human adornment device making

Abstract

A method of making jewelry from precious metals, such as gold, platinum, etc., and their alloys, comprises starting with a rectangular strip of wire mesh, (known in the trade as '"'"''"'"''"'"''"'"'milanese'"'"''"'"''"'"''"'"'), adding additional wire coils of progressively shorter length to opposite margins, placing the loosely woven mesh into a shaping press to progressively compress the mesh into a circular or oval shape, coating one face with molding wax, electroplating the other side with copper, annealing and scouring the first surface, hammering the surface to crush the wires into a denser mass while retaining its circular, or oval, shape, reannealing and re-scouring the mesh, coating the hammered surface with wax, repeating the copper electroplating step on the back, placing the plated surface in contact with a die having the desired design, hammering the first face again while the coppered surface contacts the die and removing the copper by acid etching.

Claims

1. Method of making jewelry of gold, platinum or their alloys, which comprises the steps of preparing a rectangular sheet of conventional milanese;

adding coiled wires of gradually decreasing length on either side of this sheet in order to obtain a polygonal blank, soldering the ends of each coiled wire to the last coil of the adjacent coiled wire, placing the resulting blank in a shaping press comprising a plurality of convergent movable jaws of which the minimum inner overall contour corresponds to that of the element to be obtained after operating said press, subsequently causing said jaws to converge towards one another in order to contract the blank disposed therebetween to the desired contour, coating one face of the blank with a thin layer of molding wax, electroplating a copper deposit on the other face of said blank, annealing and scouring the element thus obtained, hammering the wax-coated face of the element while held in its new shape with a cylindrical punch having a flat, granitelike end face, by using successive small passes in order to crush the wires of the blank to fill up all the gaps thereof and obtain a solid surface, finishing the element by another hammering operation using a cylindrical punch having a flat and polished end face, re-annealing and re-scouring the element, coating the hammered surface thereof with wax, re-plating the non-hammered surface with copper, and while holding the element in and against a die formed with the counterpart of the desired pattern, again hammering the other face with a flat-ended cylindrical punch, and removing the copper by etching with acid.

2. The method set forth in claim 1, which includes the steps of making thin saw-cuts in the end turns of certain of the coiled wires added to the rectangular sheet of conventional milanese.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1, which includes the steps of removing the ends of the coiled wires projecting outwardly beyond the soldering.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1, which includes the step of forcing the thin layer of molding wax to penetrate the blank by means of a small fly-press.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1, which includes the step of applying a reinforced adhesive material to the copper-plated side of the blank and applying a marginal belt of flat copper wire to the blank prior to a hammering step.