[Jewelry making - Article 01378] - Re: [Orchid] Soldering Argentium Silver

[Jan McClellan]

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Hi all,

    I'm asking (hollering!) for help once again.  I bought some 20 ga
    and 22 gu sheet and tried it out today.  I had two pieces to make,
    both with quite large stones - 40 or 45mm x  about 30mm.  I'm using
    fine silver for the bezel and it is 6mm wide - 28gu I think.  I got
    the bezels made and cut out the sheet  just a bit bigger than the
    stones.  so far so good... after positioning all those little bits
    of medium solder inside the bezel, I held one corner of the sheet
    with my tweezers and proceeded to solder, with the flame under the
    sheet - that is how I do it with regular sterling.  It sagged  - I
    straightened out the sheet as best I could, redid all the little
    solder bits and this time I propped it between two blocks I have -
    again, major sagging, in the middle this time, so I clamped it
    together with my tweezers and then the A. silver melted before the
    solder flowed!  (Yes you can fuse it)  When all else fails read the
    directions - I found all that has been written about it here on
    Orchid and found out I needed to anneal it on a flat surface before
    soldering.  So, I did that with the second piece - and then decided
    I'd better use easy solder and point the flame from the top while
    its on the flat surface - Oh oh, this time the bezel melted before
    the solder flowed. 

    There must be a way to do this - Monday I will try with a smaller
    bezel to see If that can work, maybe I just need to get used to it. 
    I would certainly appreciate any suggestions any one has. 

    Thanks, thanks, and more thanks, 

Jan
www.designjewel.com 

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