[Jewelry making - Article 01446] - Re: [Orchid] Is it firescale or not?

[Chris Backhouse]

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John,

    It certainly sounds like fire-stain and once there, there is no
    other solution than to polish it out. Some people say you have to go
    back to a coarse emery paper, others say that you should use pumice
    powder. You need to find what works for you. 

    The trick is to avoid the firestain in the first place. You can use
    a resistant alloy (like Brilliante in the UK), plenty of flux
    (perhaps using the flux mixed with meths then applied and warmed to
    leave a fine coating). A reducing flame always helps, so if I have a
    large piece to solder, I will sometimes use 2 torches. One with a
    large bushy flame, the other with a fine concentrated flame. Anything
    to keep the oxygen off the surface. 

    Also, you can try to surface enrich the piece first by heating to
    black hot and then plunging in a weak sulpuric acid or safety pickle.
    This is supposed to disolve the copper out of the alloy near the
    surface. 

Have fun
Chris Backhouse
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