[Jewelry making - Article 01264] - Re: [Orchid] Sterling or Nickel

[Marya DeBlasi]

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    Wow, my mind is now completely blown. I just finished what I thought
    was a beautiful sterling silver pin, my first pin. (Who wears pins
    any more, it was all that talk a few mos. ago about Madeline
    Albright that actually got me thinking about the form)--- but I made
    the actual pin, the stabby part that goes through your shirt, out of
    spring hardened steel.  

    Let me say that I tried silver first, it was what was on hand. So I
    tried it and all the burnishing in the world would not harden it
    enough, so someone suggested Ni, that did not get "springy" enough
    either. I opened the phone book and looked for Spring manufacturers.
    A nice man at a company gave me what to him was a few scraps, and to
    me was enough to make pins until the cows come home.  The steel
    worked beautifully, and if one splits hairs, it is not physically
    attached to the piece at any point, just pulled through a tube
    (sterling) and bent. Still, I stamped the pc "Sterling." I was
    wrong?!? Like I said, my mind is completely blown. The Spring
    hardened Steel is the only metal that made the pin function as a pin.
     How in the world was I supposed to get Sterling work hardened enough
    to do what steel does by its very nature.  

Marya
Ohio, US

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