[Jewelry making - Article 01666] - Re: [Orchid] Hardening silver in a kiln?

[Jeff Demand]

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Louise,

    Sometimes with sterling. And a very good temperature controller is
    needed. My experiments years ago with an old analog controller were
    less than exciting, my present digital one has much better control.
    Might be worth an afternoon of play. 

    From a google on precipitation hardening sterling
    http://www.mjsajournal.org/features/0502 

        Sterling Silver. It is recommended to solution treat sterling
        silver at 750 C to 760 C/1,382 F to 1,400 F for 30 minutes,
        quench immediately, and age for one hour at 300 C/572 F. The
        hardness of the sterling alloy can be effectively doubled with
        this process, from HV 60 in the fully annealed state to HV 120. 

        The only problem posed by this process is that the solution
        treatment temperature is above normal soldering temperatures for
        sterling, so only articles with no solder can be treated.
        Soldering after hardening sterling will over-age the material
        dramatically to the point of nullifying the hardening effort. 

Jeff
Demand Designs
Analog/Digital Modelling & Goldsmithing
http://www.gmavt.net/~jdemand
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