[Jewelry making - Article 00303] - Re: [Orchid] Argentium Sterling: Annealing

[Trevor]

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>     I had done the research, reading, and practice--surely that counts
>     as "doing your homework," else I never would have posted. 

    Indeed it does and in that case let me be the first to apologize.
    From the nature of your questions, and the fact that no mention was
    made of having done any outside research, it appeared as if you were
    simply coming into this cold. I jumped to that conclusion and I hope
    you'll accept my apology for that. 

>     I read McCreight, the relevant Orchid archives, and the references
>     mentioned. But my results were not consistent with others'
>     results. In fact, there were inconsistencies among these
>     references. 

    That's a key point in this discussion for several reasons, not the
    least of which is that knowing that you've read the background
    material allows us to deal with your question at a much "higher"
    level. It's one thing to be explaining to a novice how to solder,
    it's quite another to discuss specific soldering problems with a
    knowledgeable and experienced person. I for one would've liked to
    have known what background material you'd familiarized yourself with
    and where you'd encountered problems with it. That puts your
    question(s) in a whole different light. IMO the context of your
    question is pretty critical to understanding your question. 

    Since you are familiar with the "reference" materials we've cited
    previously then you'll also know that virtually every single one of
    them makes the point that Argentium Sterling (AS) is similar
    _but_not_the_same_ as regular sterling (RS). To the best of my
    knowledge Tim McCreight hasn't specifically addressed AS so his
    printed material, which I own and love, isn't particularly applicable
    to your very specific AS difficulties. He'll point you in more or
    less the right direction but in order to deal with your AS issues
    you're going to have to get a lot more specific than that. 

    So in this new light I'd like to make a suggestion: name the
    specific inconsistencies you've encountered in the "refence"
    materials that are troubling you. Do a "Trevor says X here but Marty
    says Y there" if you need to. I don't think anyone is going to be
    offended by that and I for one find the specific inconsistencies are
    often where you'll find the footy prints of the real problem. Let me
    offer an example: 

    Some months ago Cynthia, I believe, mentioned that she was
    successfully fusing AS and that it worked quite well. Previously I'd
    claimed it wasn't working. Why the inconsistency? It turned out that
    she was using a hotter, compact oxy-gas flame and I was using a big,
    bushy, cooler propane flame. Voila! By pinpointing and pursuing the
    discrepancy we both learned something and I now had a very solid
    reason for sinking some cash into getting my oxy-gas rig repaired. 

    The same has proven to be true more than once when it comes to
    people adopting AS: flux issues, variance in AS casting procedures,
    and so forth. The devil is in the details and IMO the sooner we can
    zero in on the specifics the better... and the more likely you are to
    get some useful insights into your particular AS difficulties. 

Cheers,
Trevor F.
in The City of Light
Visit TouchMetal.com at http://www.touchmetal.com
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