About Tombstone Silverworks

Greetings from Tombstone. Thank you for spending some time with us. Our name comes from the town of Tombstone in Arizona where in the late 1800's silver was found and the place sprang up out of nowhere with silver mines and the most well known of cowboys like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday and of course Boot Hill. It was a huge part of the old west and still exists today. "The town to tuff to die".

The first thing you should know about us is we are a family business. We've been manufacturing jewelry for over 35 years and have built a strong following of loyal customers because of quality and uniqueness. You may have already noticed that this is not your average silver jewelry website. At least we believe it's not. We promise not to overwhelm or bore you with run of the mill silver designs made in some other country or countries. We do not offer stamped out lightweight jewelry with little or no detail. No kiosk or big box store products here. You get the idea. Except for Southwest Native American Jewelry and Silver chain from Italy Tombstone manufacturers all our silver jewelry in house. For over 35 years we have used the "lost wax casting method" to make all our jewelry. All fine jewelry is made this way. Keep reading and you'll find out how that's done. Our most popular items are our original creations although we have a number of different collections in our repertoire. They range from mild to wild, from skull jewelry to religious items. In the past we've used the term "lifestyle jewelry" to describe our products because they attract people with different lifestyles. From the beginning we've always made things that were of interest to us or things we saw others had interest in. At first we made items that were industry standard pieces. Some items go back as far as the 1930's. Today we focus on some main collections and a ton of miscellaneous pieces. The main collections are: Skull and Pirate Jewelry, Biker Jewelry, Mythical Jewelry, Nautical Jewelry, Cat Jewelry and Religious Jewelry with many Crosses and Jesus pendants. We also have many items that are not a categorized.

This all started on Long Island, New York where we were raised. It was a hobby at first then we set up at flea markets and finally wound up with a full jewelry store featuring gold and silver jewelry and diamond engagement rings. In 1987 the whole gold industry went in a direction we were not happy with so soon after we made a change. That change brought us to Main St Daytona Beach, Florida by invitation from a merchant who sold many items we manufactured for his catalog. For many years he rented a store as a vendor during the Bike Week event because much of what he sold catered to the bikers as did our products. That first Bike Week we shared a store with him and saw the potential. So we purchased a building of our own and made the move in 1990. With the price of gold going through the roof as it is today we decided to turn our attention on silver only. The method we use to make jewelry is the lost wax method it has been around forever. There are many steps to this process and each one has to be perfect or the final product would have been a waste of time. Not to get into all the details but here's a bit of an overview. Soon we will have photos of this process. The first of any new idea or creation has to be made of wax. This takes someone to sit and carve model wax in the exact form of the piece they desire. This wax is placed in a steel cylinder on a sprue or tree, covered with an investment that looks like plaster of Paris and left to harden. This is put in an oven heated to 1000 degrees give or take. The wax melts out the bottom of the steel flask onto the bricks of the oven leaving the impression of the wax that burned out and went up in smoke and out the chimney. Thus the "lost wax" term. While red hot the flask is placed in a centrifugal casting machine. The proper amount of silver is melted by torch in a crucible and the silver is forced into the flask by the spin of the casting machine. When cooled the investment is cleaned out of the flask and if all went well what was wax is now silver. Now the whole process of finishing begins that will bring the item to its final look. A nice shinny new piece of silver jewelry.

We have been on Main St Daytona Beach for over 20 years with our retail store offices and work shop. We've seen thousand of Bikers and others from all over the world each year. Tombstone has built a reputation over the years as a jewelry company with unique designs and great quality. We have become a mainstay on this street where tens of thousand of folks have come through our doors on special events. Bikers make it a point to come and see us while they're here. We have made quite a name for ourselves. Now we are here on the web and hope to do business with many more folks. Thanks for stopping by.