The design also prevents pooling of liquid flux when applying with a brush. One of the most frequently asked questions by novice jewelers is, what kind of solder do you use for sterling silver? Solders are offered as paste, wire, sheet, or chips. As a novice, a soft wire like this solder wire from uGems makes an easy start. Flames cause metals to oxidize and change color. Flux is a pasty or fluid substance applied to sterling silver to act as a reducing agent and prevent oxidation.
It also helps the solder flow better. Aquiflux self-pickling jewelry flux is a beginner-friendly choice. It comes in a spray bottle for easy mess-free application. It is also transparent, which enables you to assess the precision of the joining with clarity. The variety can be a bit overwhelming as there are so many different types and sizes.
You can go straight to a professional-grade torch, so you only need to buy it once. When shopping, please note that a soldering iron is different from a soldering torch. A soldering iron will not work for this type of soldering. An actual jet of blue flame is a requisite for soldering sterling silver. This is a familiar oversight among newbies. The torches do not come pre-filled with gas; neither do they come with gas tanks. Go for butane or propane torches as the gas is typically easy to find at a local gas station.
A soldering pick acts like a heat resistant finger. It helps you make fine alignment adjustments to the solder or jewelry while hot in case of any shifts. They are pretty inexpensive, like this Deluxe titanium set of three soldering picks. Curved copper tongs are used to dip and remove your pieces from the pickle bath. Well, it is not recommended, because iron, steel or other metals commonly used to make tweezers will react with the pickle, contaminate it, and stain your sterling silver jewelry with an oxide.
So a set of copper tongs is ideal for your soldering needs. Pickle is an acidic cleaning solution to use on sterling silver after soldering. It eliminates the blackish or reddish fire scale restoring the original beautiful silver color.
An old or spare crockpot you never use in the kitchen is the best vessel for holding the pickle bath. However, it should never go back to food preparation again! Sparex is a popular and effective soldering pickle. Be sure to adhere to the mixing and usage instructions. A quench bowl is nothing fancy. This is a simple ordinary plastic or glass bowl that you put plain warm water to cleanse the soldered joint from any residual flux. Use an old rag to dry afterward.
Privacy Policy. Kit List To make this project, you'll need to pick up these key pieces of kit:. Soldering silver to copper: Many jewellers find learning how to solder copper and silver very tricky, because of their differing melting temperatures. Here are our top 4 tips on how to solder silver to copper: 1. Try sweat soldering A simple way of soldering together a piece of copper and a piece of silver is to use a technique called sweat soldering.
Now, with a small amount of easy silver solder coated in flux and placed at the very end of some fine tweezers, you can begin to heat it with your hand torch. You will have to move quickly, as the silver solder will start to ball up rapidly. As you see it ball up, place it onto the underside of your silver sheet until it flows across the surface.
Place your silver sheet to one side and apply a small amount of flux to the top side of your copper sheet. Make sure the area that is covered is roughly the same as the size of your silver sheet.
Once the flux is applied you can place the silver sheet on top of the copper sheet, ensuring that the solder is face down on the copper sheet. Now heat the silver sheet in a circular motion until the silver starts to reach annealing temperature or begins to glow a dull cherry red colour. To create a complex piece, start with hard solder, then fuse the next elements with medium solder.
Add the last parts with easy solder. This way, the solder holding the first elements will not flow or move while subsequent parts are assembled. We carry the following hard solders, compatible flux, and pickle: Silver Solder Variety Pack Contains cadmium-free sheets of easy, medium and hard grade silver solder. Each grade melts at a different temperature. Use to solder complex pieces with many joints. Hard Grade Silver Solder Cadmium-free sheet solder.
Excellent for the first stage of soldering a complex piece with many joints. Medium Grade Silver Solder Cadmium-free solder, available in your choice of sheet or wire. Excellent for the middle stage of soldering a complex piece with many joints. Easy Grade Silver Solder Cadmium-free solder, available in your choice of sheet or wire. Excellent for the final stage of soldering a complex piece with many joints. Copper Solder gauge copper wire for soldering copper.
The presence of phosphorous makes this wire solder self fluxing. Brass Solder Cadmium-free gauge brass wire for hard soldering. Offers an improved color match for yellow brass designs. Bronze Solder Cadmium-free gauge bronze wire for hard soldering. Provides an excellent color match for bronze designs.
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