[Jewelry making - Article 00127] - Re: [Orchid] A different Argentium problem

[Zen Sojourner]

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>     the new Argentium silver Hard solder from Rio has a flow point of
>     1355F. 

    From Cynthia Eid's SNAG article:

          "Argentium(r) Easy melts at 1146F (619C), and flows at 1253F
          (678C). Argentium(r) Medium melts at 1237F (670C), and flows at
          1319F (715C). Argentium(r) Hard melts at 1272F (689C), and
          flows at 1355(735C). " 

    Rio Grande lists Argentium easy solder with melting point of 1195
    and flow point of 1265, which doesn't match ANY of the above.  I've
    got to call them tomorrow.... 

    Also found out from Cynthia's article that the "twice the hardness
    of sterling" is based on the hardness of conventional sterling "fully
    annealed", which I always assumed was the same as "dead soft". 

    According to the new RG catalog (p 37 of the new catalog), annealed
    Sterling ranges between a Rockwell hardness of 18 and 48, depending
    on the method used to anneal. 

    Now, to add to the confusion, in the same catalog on p 39, there's a
    chart showing Rockwell hardness values associated with the terms
    dead soft, 1/4 hard, 1/2 hard, etc.  THIS table shows dead soft
    sterling with a Rockwell hardness of 70 and spring hard at 87. 

    So is "dead soft" NOT really as soft as you can get it?  And is the
    "double the hardness of fully annealed sterling" value based on
    "dead soft" being somewhere between 18 and 48 (and if so, where?), or
    70? 

    And if I want something really, really soft, do I have to anneal it
    myself and quench it (and will this even WORK with Argentium since
    we're not supposed to quench it until it cools off somewhat?) 

    And if you want to get REALLY confused (or not, if you're smarter
    than I am, which wouldn't be suprising) take a look at the "wire
    hardness" chart on page 47 of the new RG catalog. I have no idea what
    that's trying to tell me.  They're not using Rockwell hardness values
    at all, so I can't compare to the other charts, and as far as I can
    tell, "Brown and Sharpe Numbers" are arbitrary numbers that have no
    meaning when comparing one material to another. Tensile strength, to
    my knowledge, doesn't necessarily relate to relative hardness. 

    My head hurts. I think I'll go home and nurse my pneumonia now, and
    hope that somebody smarter than I am can explain to me what's going
    on.

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