[Jewelry making - Article 00180] - Re: [Orchid] Argentium Blog

[Trevor F]

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>     In particular, I'm wondering about heat-hardening of the alloy, and
>     any tips people have for trying to solder it for the first time. 

Hello Leah,

    Thank you for your interest in the blog. As the Orchid guys mentioned
    its called "Working With Argentium Silver" and is at 

    http://www.touchmetal.com/blog/argentium-blog.html 

    Regarding the heat hardening you might want to look at the following
    entries in the blog: 

    - "Precipitation Hardening, Part One" at 

www.touchmetal.com/blog/2005/02/precipitation-hardening-part-one.html

    - "Precipitation Hardening, Part Two" at 

www.touchmetal.com/blog/2005/02/precipitation-hardening-part-two.html

    - "Precipitation Hardening, Part Three + Conclusions" at 

www.touchmetal.com/blog/2005/02/precipitation-hardening-part-three.html

    The bottom line with the heat hardening is that it's easy and very
    effective.  I've made it standard procedure for most of my designs. 

    As to soldering I think you'll find it fairly straightforward. As you
    know Hard grade solder is not recommended because it takes you
    dangerously close to Argentium's slump temperature.  Medium grade is
    fine for most fabrication work.  Standard silver solder is what most
    of us are using on it though specific Argentium solders should be
    appearing soon. 

    One soldering trick I've taken to using lately is to roll my sheet
    solder through my rolling mill in order to thin it out. I take it
    down to about .005 inch and then cut it into chips just like normal.
    The advantage of having the thin chips is that they melt faster and
    don't "ghost", both of which help when you're trying to be careful
    how much heat you're pumping into the metal during soldering. 

    As mentioned here and elsewhere you need to readjust your visual cues
    a little when it comes to heating and soldering Argentium. Argentium
    doesn't show it's heat colour as readily as standard sterling so
    you'll want to be a bit cautious with it at first. I just dim the
    lights in my studio in order to see the heat coloring better. It helps
    if you have a dimmer control right at your bench which is what I've
    set up. 

    Last but not least you need to be aware that Argentium will "slump"
    sooner than standard sterling would when you're heating it. It's not
    a big deal but you'll want to provide a little more support for larger
    and/or flat pieces than you'd need to with regular sterling. 

    If I can be of any further assistance please don't hesitate to ask. 

Cheers,
Trevor F.
in The City of Light
www.touchmetal.com

 
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