Cuff Links

A pair of cuff links made from casts of the Scribner Ranch Brand using Delft clay. These were originally cast when making medallions for another project (that spanned a few casting sessions, so they were not both cast during the same session), but at just over 2 mm thick they were a little too thick for the medallions I was making.

Sterling Silver cuff links, Scribner Ranch Brand, work in progress (part 1).

When the first one came along, instead of filing it down to the correct thickness for the medallions, I set it aside thinking I might use it for *something*, since it was a clean cast and I didn’t want to waste the effort and clay sand used.

It was when a later casting came along that was also too thick (and a clean cast as well) that I found it was literally identical in thickness to the first, and the idea of a pair of cuff links came to mind. I thought they would be ideal for that, so ran with it.

For what it’s worth, they were thicker than my brass template as I had re-pressed the template into the clay to get a clearer definition of the brand, but on these two I had obviously pressed a little too hard, making the casts thicker than I wanted for the medallions.

Sterling Silver cuff links, Scribner Ranch Brand, work in progress (part 2).

I wanted these cuff links to be 100% handmade, so instead of using factory-made cuff link toggle bars soldered to the backs, I decided to use chain link and cross-bars that I had fashioned myself instead.

After cutting out the brand in an oval shape, I rolled out an ingot to the thickness I wanted to use for the cross-bars as square wire, and rolled up some round wire for the cuff link back, cross-bar and O-ring chain links (testing a couple sizes of chain link O-ring sizes and number of links needed to see what fit best when used with a cuff shirt).

I then soldered on the half-rings to the backs of the casts and the O-rings onto the cross-bars, then soldered the links for the chain connecting the two, leaving the end links un-soldered until they were ready to be attached to the back of the cast faces and cross-bars.

I followed that with cleaning up the cuff link faces and cross-bars after the soldering (much easier to do at this point than after everything is connected), soldered on the chain links and readied the pieces for oxidizing and final cleanup/polishing.

Oh, and the picture of the cuff link on the shirt in the collage didn’t turn out very well (I’m not much of a photographer)… it almost looks like brass, but it’s not! 😉

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