[Jewelry making - Article 00142] - [Orchid] Granulation & Germanium

[Nancy Howland]

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    Those of you who have been using copper carbonate to eutectic (or
    chemical) solder fine silver granules to fine silver may be
    interested to know that adding germanium instead of copper produces
    the same (?) result. 

    Dissolve about a lentil-size amount of germanium powder into about
    1/4 teaspoon of Battern's flux, mix well, then added three drops of
    Klyr-Fire (the brand name of organic glue used in enameling). Add to
    this solution the number of fine silver granules you plan to use.
    Apply granules to 24-gauge sheet fine silver and wait for the glue
    to dry. Place the silver with granules on a wire rack that sits
    flush with the floor of an Ultralite kiln (Rio Grande). Place the
    rack on the lid of a pre-heated kiln for a few minutes to heat up
    the rack. Then, place the rack in the kiln, cover, and heat for 5
    minutes. (After about 2 minutes the organic glue (black color) burns
    off. Remove from kiln and air cool. 

    That's it, no torch or additional anything is needed. (In fact, when
    I tried to torch-heat, I just melted all of the granules.) The
    kiln-heated granules are firmly attached. The following photo shows
    two example pieces just as they look straight out of the kiln. The
    granules are 0.65 mm and, under 30x magnification, look exactly like
    granulation made with copper. There are small bridges where granules
    touch and a connection with the base. It really does look like they
    are floating on the surface. (Sorry for the poor quality photo, all
    of my photo lights burned out.) On other pieces, I have polished the
    surface between the granules with 3M radial bristle discs and rubbed
    the surface of the granules with a "sunshine cloth". 

    http://www.psi-design.com/germanium.jpg 

    My source of powdered germanium is special order from Whole Foods,
    health food section (it is an anti-oxidant health food supplement.)
    The one I have is Jarrow Formulas, bis-beta carboxyethyl germanium
    sesquioxide. Or, " Ge-132 organic germanium sesquioxide."
    (www.jarrow.com). There are other sources of germanium on the web
    that probably cost less than $6.00 US per gram in the 5 gram bottle
    I got from the store. 

    The whole idea started when I wondered if germanium applied to the
    surface of regular Sterling silver would provide a tough coating
    that would be better than lacquer or wax. When heated, the surface
    of the sterling silver melts at a lower temperature (and doesn't
    look good) but that is when the idea came for use in granulation.
    I'm still interested in finding some way to coat sterling silver
    with germanium. 

    I hope some of you will try experimenting with germanium, especially
    granulation because this is really easy to do. 

Nancy
www.psi-design.com


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