[Jewelry making - Article 01566] - Re: [Orchid] To quench or not to quench, that is the question

[James Binnion]

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>     Yourself and others have made it more understandable regarding the
>     temperature required but as Jim Binnion I think said, it is a
>     temperature AND time thing and that it needs to be kept at the
>     desired temperature for enough time for the crystals to grow. I
>     suppose there's no way of knowing exactly how long but have you or
>     anyone else got any advice for me as to how long to keep my silver
>     at cherry red for? 

    This is where many run into trouble. The hotter it is the less time
    it takes to get a full anneal so the temptation to speed things up
    makes for the possibility of over heating. Also some alloys need
    longer times just because of their composition. If you look up
    industrial information on annealing sterling you will see temperature
    ranges of 900-1000 F (480-535 C) at the high end this is just a
    barely visible color in a dark room but industrially they are doing
    it in a furnace with a controlled atmosphere and the cycle time is
    quite long as it is often furnace cooled. But even with furnace
    quench tanks in the controlled atmosphere the cycle times are 15-30
    min to get to full heat. We obviously can't hold a torch heat at such
    a low temperature for 15-30 min so we try to keep the temperature
    down to a dim glow that is probably more like 1150 F (621 C) for a
    more brief period of time. 

Jim

James Binnion
jbin AT mokume-gane.com
James Binnion Metal Arts
http://www.mokume-gane.com
360-756-6550
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