FILS UNIQUE - Fine hand-crafted silver accessories - AFFILIATE VENDOR THREAD

[Fils Unique]

You're right! thanks for bringing this to my attention.

The size of the tooth necklace is the same as the lapel pin depicted here.
The Octopus necklace is bigger, about 2 inches wide.

We'll add the measurements on the website and I'll share them here too.

 

[LA Guy]

Is your logo a leopard playing soccer?

 

[Fils Unique]

haha almost!
It's a leopard playing with a skull.

The leopard is a solitary animal that represents and embodies beauty, confidence, leadership (and is a bit egotistical). all these traits align perfectly with the ethos of Fils Unique.

In the image you see a playful leopard playing with a skull and the skull has always been a great source of inspiration for me, as you can also see in our "skulls skulls skulls" collection.

Is your logo a leopard playing soccer?

 

[Fils Unique]

Yeah, you need measurements for your pendants. Or pics of people wearing them (not all of them have them). Or preferably both.

How big is something like that Octopus on? I don’t see the pics worn, or maybe even measurements?
Or this:

Tooth Pendant

Explore our collection of human teeth necklaces. Find sterling silver tooth pendants & teeth chain necklaces for an edgy, distinctive look at Fil's Unique.

www.filsunique.com

Following up on your requests:
the tooth pendant is 0.57in height, 0.37in width / 14.7mm height, 8.66mm Width.
We'll have an on-model picture soon.
This model can also be made in solid gold or gold-plated silver.

I hope that helps

 

[Fils Unique]

We're currently testing a new PVD coating for our geometric silver cufflinks. The 2 first are first sandblasted to give a matte finish and the 3rd one on the video (the small pyramids) are polished before the coating, which gives a shiny finish.



In my opinion, the matte finish looks better but I would be curious to have your feedback.
Also, we're considering using another metal than silver (brass?) to offer a lower retail price.

I'll share a sneak peek of our minimal geometric shapes capsule collection soon.

Any feedback is welcome. Thank you!

 

[LA Guy]

We're currently testing a new PVD coating for our geometric silver cufflinks. The 2 first are first sandblasted to give a matte finish and the 3rd one on the video (the small pyramids) are polished before the coating, which gives a shiny finish.



In my opinion, the matte finish looks better but I would be curious to have your feedback.
Also, we're considering using another metal than silver (brass?) to offer a lower retail price.

I'll share a sneak peek of our minimal geometric shapes capsule collection soon.

Any feedback is welcome. Thank you!

I'll bite. I know that not all coatings are the same, but I've seen a glossy black DLC coating on expensive pocket knives which look really good to me. I'm not sure how the effect is achieved, but the finished looks like the polish and with a lot of depth in the color.

 

[Fils Unique]

I'll bite. I know that not all coatings are the same, but I've seen a glossy black DLC coating on expensive pocket knives which look really good to me. I'm not sure how the effect is achieved, but the finished looks like the polish and with a lot of depth in the color.

I would be curious to see the pocket knives you're talking about. Do you have a link?

A shiny coating finish is usually applied on a clean polished surface while a matte finish is obtained by applying the coating on a metal that has been sanded before (that's what we did for the cufflinks in the video).

 

[LA Guy]

I would be curious to see the pocket knives you're talking about. Do you have a link?

A shiny coating finish is usually applied on a clean polished surface while a matte finish is obtained by applying the coating on a metal that has been sanded before (that's what we did for the cufflinks in the video).

Sure, here is a video. It's a
"DLC stonewash". I have a couple of their uncoated stonewashed knives, and they are semigloss:

 

[Fils Unique]

Sure, here is a video. It's a
"DLC stonewash". I have a couple of their uncoated stonewashed knives, and they are semigloss:

Looks beautiful!! thank you for sharing!
I'm gonna test this on cufflinks and other jewelry too, I really like the depth of the color, which is easy to obtain

 

[LA Guy]

Looks beautiful!! thank you for sharing!
I'm gonna test this on cufflinks and other jewelry too, I really like the depth of the color, which is easy to obtain

The depth of the color is great. From some angles, it looks bronze, which makes no sense, but there it is.

 

[Fils Unique]

Hi SF

Today, I'm sharing some pictures of a custom Cactus Cufflinks order.

A few weeks ago, a loyal customer asked us to make a pair of silver cufflinks.
He sent me this picture as reference (but he wanted only two "leaf" parts for the cactus)

So I made a quick sketch to have the proportions and general concept.

When our customer accepted the concept and proportions, our CAD artist started making the 3D model, which resulted in this:

But it was "too flat" for our customer, so we changed the angle of the right "leaf" to this (and added a flower on the right "leaf"):

Once approved, we affixed the cufflinks post in position and adjusted the size

It was then cast in Argentium, assembled and polished. The final step was, of course, the hand enameling. I think our artists did a great job on this:

Next week, I'll share the steps of another custom request from a customer: A pair of cigarette cufflinks.

What would you like us to make ? I'm curious

 

[LA Guy]

Hi SF

Today, I'm sharing some pictures of a custom Cactus Cufflinks order.

A few weeks ago, a loyal customer asked us to make a pair of silver cufflinks.
He sent me this picture as reference (but he wanted only two "leaf" parts for the cactus)
View attachment 1954243

So I made a quick sketch to have the proportions and general concept.

View attachment 1954245
When our customer accepted the concept and proportions, our CAD artist started making the 3D model, which resulted in this:

View attachment 1954247

But it was "too flat" for our customer, so we changed the angle of the right "leaf" to this (and added a flower on the right "leaf"):

View attachment 1954249

Once approved, we affixed the cufflinks post in position and adjusted the size

View attachment 1954251

It was then cast in Argentium, assembled and polished. The final step was, of course, the hand enameling. I think our artists did a great job on this:

View attachment 1954257

View attachment 1954259

View attachment 1954261

Next week, I'll share the steps of another custom request from a customer: A pair of cigarette cufflinks.

What would you like us to make ? I'm curious

Could you explain the modern casting method. How does that that get from a CAD file to a finished product. Are there any technical limitations to what I could have made?

 

[Fils Unique]

Could you explain the modern casting method. How does that that get from a CAD file to a finished product. Are there any technical limitations to what I could have made?

Sure!

We use the commonly used "lost wax casting".

3D design

The first step is to design a very good 3D model using a software like Rhino or Zbrush.
Once the 3D model is done and all details look good, we affix the cufflink post (the bar that connects through the cuff hole to the cufflink whaleback).

3D Print

We then 3D print the model (at Fils Unique, we need super precise printers with a precision of 300 microns or finer, which is a precision that would not be achievable by hand). From then you can either print with SLA (a type of plastic filament) or Resin/wax. With SLA, you need an additional step, which is creating a mold (in silicon) from the model printed in plastic. You'll use the mold to inject hot wax in it and retrieve a wax copy of your model. If you print in wax/resin, you don't need that additional step because the printed wax model can be used directly for casting.

Here is an example of a silicon mold with the injected wax in it (in this picture, our frog cufflinks)

Here is an example of a wax-printed model that comes out of the 3D printer:

With both SLA and Wax options, you end up with a wax model. Usually, you'll make several wax copies for efficiency purposes.

The "Tree"
Each of these copies will be attached to a wax trunk (called a tree). So at this stage, you have a tree to which all models are attached through a sprue (which is the canal through which the hot metal will flow.

the "tree":

the Flask and Investment material

The Tree is then encapsulated in a cylinder flask and is then filled with plaster investment. The plaster is put in an air vacuum machine that removes air bubbles. It is very important to have the investment clean of air bubbles because air bubbles would create cavities in your silver afterward.

The Flasks:

The flask being filled with investment material:

Heating the flask and investment material

Once this is done, the flask is left in a kiln at a very high temperature which 1) solidifies the investment and 2) melts the wax (tree + sprues + models). So you end up with a solid cylinder with vacuums in the shape of your models.

The casting

The next and most important step is when you melt your silver alloy (Sterling Silver = 92.5% silver + 7.5% copper, Argentium= 93% or 96% silver + Copper and 1% germanium) and pour it into the flask, then fill the vacuum left by the wax that evaporated at high temperature in the kiln.

Cleaning the flask and the tree

The last step is plunging the flask into water. The investment will dissolve in water and leave the tree (now made of silver or argentium).

Assembling & Polishing

From now, you have a rough silver piece and you need to cut the silver pieces from the sprues and start the polishing work.

You can have an overview of the process in motion here: https://www.filsunique.com/pages/ourcraftsmanship

The only limitations come from what is printable (in terms of thickness) but the last years have seen amazing improvements in precision. Then another limitation is being able to polish all intricate details and access all areas to be polished. the more you polish, the more material you remove i.e. you also remove details and tend to round edges.

This being said, with good and experienced craftspeople, (almost) nothing is impossible.

Any design idea you would like to submit? we love challenges!

 

[ericgereghty]

Popped my FU cherry. Long overdue.

 

[Fils Unique]

Popped my FU cherry. Long overdue.

Thank you for the nice review Eric!