[Jewelry making - Article 00570] - Re: [Orchid] Flux & Fire scale

[Jewelryartschool]

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>     Is there any new way of handling the firescale that I get when I
>     need to use yellow orchre? For example I cover my silver piece
>     with Prips flux and solder some small pieces of gold on one side.
>     This piece is two sided so now I must yellow ochre the previously
>     soldered gold pieces and turn it over and Prips the second side
>     and solder the gold on that side. I can't use Prips over the
>     ochered side or it will "bleed" the ochre or white out and then
>     it's not safe any more to assume it won't remelt those soldered
>     pieces. 

    Unless the pieces you have soldered onto the first side of your work
    are heavy enough for gravity to shift them around when the solder
    liquifies you should not need to cover them with ochre... 

    The reason being, that those first pieces can be soldered with a
    slightly higher temperature solder, and the reverse side with
    slightly lower temperat ure solder. There are at least six different
    temperatures of silver solder available, and perhaps close to a
    hundred in the various colors and karats o f gold solders... 

    Another couple of factors enter into soldering on both sides of a
    flat plate , for example: a sterling belt buckle with a 14KY overlaid
    monogram on the front, needs to have the findings attached to the
    back side. We routinely us e medium silver solder for  both sides. The
    monogram goes on first, and the fi ndings go on second. (The findings
    in our case DO weigh enough to shift, or fall over if you have to go
    back and do work on the front side - that rarely/neve r happens.) 

    The reason that the monogram does not shift while soldering on the
    findings is because we generally support the piece in the air, so
    there is no pressur e on the monogram - and most important - EACH TIME
    YOU REHEAT A SOLDERED JOINT 

    THE SOLDER ALLOY CHANGES TO A SLIGHTLY HIGHER MELTING POINT. This
    happens because some of the lower melting point metals in the solder
    alloy are vapor ized, and other metals begin combining (amalgamating?)
    with the "skin" between you r two pieces. Anyone who has ever tried to
    remove an overlaid piece of metal s heet knows that you practically
    have use a crowbar to get 'em apart! In fact I have made a flattened
    "chisel" shaped tool out of titanium for precisely tha t purpose! 

    Another thing you might consider is your heat control. If you are
    heating th e second side hot enough to get the solder to actually
    "run" on the first side 

    - you are probably overheating the piece. I would venture to guess
    that 90% of the really bad cases of firescale I see are caused by
    overheating... 

Brian P. Marshall
Stockton Jewelry Arts


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