[Jewelry making - Article 01340] - [Orchid] Twisted silver and gold wire

[Zen Sojourner]

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<edit> message split </edit>

    OK, now one project I have in mind to do involves twisted SS wire
    wrapped with a smaller gauge 10k wire, but then I read somewhere
    that lower k gold alloys don't bond properly with SS and that you
    might melt the SS piece trying to solder gold to it.  My plan was to
    do the wire wrapping and forge the piece into shape.  So I woulldn't
    think that using gold-filled wire would work because once you
    flatten it a bit, then the gold spreads out and I assume the brass
    will show through at least in places.  Besides, if gold won't solder
    to silver easily, then why would GF wire, since its gold on the
    outside anyway?  Well, but I guess that's 14k gold overlay, so might
    that work, if 14k is high enough?  But then there's still the
    flattening-out-exposing-underlying-brass problem. 

    So other than going to a higher k alloy of gold, which isn't really
    possible at this point because I need to keep costs down unless and
    until I start making some money, is there some other way to do this?
    I'd like to get that gold color alternating with the silver, but I
    can't really afford to be doing this in 18k or even 14k gold if
    there's anyway to avoid it. 

    Is there a solder I can use on copper that won't turn gray?  I'd
    like to do some work in copper but the only copper solder I know of
    turns gray and says it shouldn't be used on visible joints. 

    And finally, does anybody have any advice in regard to registering a
    trademark? 

    I'm really looking forward to getting started with all this again. 
    I know this is a lot of questions, and I really appreciate all the
    help I've gotten in the past. 

Thanks!
Sojourner


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