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Dec. 6th, 2006 06:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
afmetalsmithOK, this is weird.
I know I said that I was not necessarily expecting the copper plating to go smoothly. Apparently my studio demons saw this as a challenge. :P
I have nice dirty pickle. I have my copper filigree with silver visible where the solder ran. I have various bits of cheap steel.
Now, in general when one introduces steel into pickle accidentally, everything gets Cu plated instantly, and there is much cursing. Today? Nothin'. So I turned up the heat and left it a while, and fished it out- still nothin'. So then I fished out the steel... which now has a coat of copper on it. WTF????
So now I have both a thimble- used for forming and soldering my plique one- and a cotter pin, both with a funky copper coating that I'll have to burn off so solder won't stick to them... and perfectly silver solder seams on my star.
Ye gods.
I suppose I'll throw the star into the tumbler anyway, because the silver will be somewhat less visible when it's all shiny. And I'll ask J if he has some steel wool and try that. I saved a couple of cups of the dirty pickle when I changed it... Maybe I'll just throw some scrap Cu in it and see if I can get it even dirtier...
Amazing, really!
I know I said that I was not necessarily expecting the copper plating to go smoothly. Apparently my studio demons saw this as a challenge. :P
I have nice dirty pickle. I have my copper filigree with silver visible where the solder ran. I have various bits of cheap steel.
Now, in general when one introduces steel into pickle accidentally, everything gets Cu plated instantly, and there is much cursing. Today? Nothin'. So I turned up the heat and left it a while, and fished it out- still nothin'. So then I fished out the steel... which now has a coat of copper on it. WTF????
So now I have both a thimble- used for forming and soldering my plique one- and a cotter pin, both with a funky copper coating that I'll have to burn off so solder won't stick to them... and perfectly silver solder seams on my star.
Ye gods.
I suppose I'll throw the star into the tumbler anyway, because the silver will be somewhat less visible when it's all shiny. And I'll ask J if he has some steel wool and try that. I saved a couple of cups of the dirty pickle when I changed it... Maybe I'll just throw some scrap Cu in it and see if I can get it even dirtier...
Amazing, really!
