[Jewelry making - Article 00291] - Re: [Orchid] Hallmarking and solder

[Helen Hill]

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Hi Ian,

>     The assay offices always take a sample of the solder used and for
>     silver, whether of Sterling or Britannia standard, the solder must
>     be at least 650 parts per thousand pure. 

    I know about hallmarking and its laws but I didn't know about them
    actually testing the solder joints, so thanks. 

    I practice all you say about soldering and always have done, apart
    from painting with ochre. I use torch control to stop previous
    joints from flowing and haven't had a joint leak yet. 

    US plumb solder, however, is different from our solder. Plumb or
    karat solder is the same karat as the metal it is to solder. So
    plumb sterling solder contains 92.5% pure silver and the other metals
    manipulate the melting point to a bit lower than that of sterling
    silver. I used it for a few weeks while it lasted, and they were the
    best solder joints I have ever achieved. No puddling, no jumping
    away to a different place. Every joint went smoothly, running along
    the joint or around a bezel by capillary action, etc. I will be
    buying the solder from the US as it worked for me. Nobody in the UK
    sells it and I have tried virtually every supplier now (almost) but
    all they sell is the 67% silver solder which I am already using. None
    of them have even heard of it and assume it must be a brand name but
    top American jewellers won't use anything else. John Donnivan uses it
    exclusively and confirmed what I thought to be the case, ie. same
    karat as the metal to be soldered. 

    But thanks for your recommendations. Manchester Minerals is a
    supplier I've not yet used. 

Helen
UK
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