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Mar. 8th, 2008 06:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
afmetalsmithA good day in the studio today! I did some tricky soldering, and made good progress on several commission pieces.
One of the soldering items was my first soldering of the sterling/platinum alloy, using the solder the company sells for such. It went well, for the most part... but everything got far hotter than is usual or even possible for sterling! We had some serious glowing going on, and regular sterling would have been pretty fried. This stuff was great, though, and ended up with pretty much no oxidation- interesting!
The solder melts and flows at a temp way higher than hard silver solder. I'd have been more freaked out by this if I hadn't encountered the same thing with palladium white gold. As it was, I forged ahead, and things look good right now.
I'll mention that the solder- sold in thin sheets- seems to be very brittle indeed, and I hope this does not give me problems when I go to round my ring. But then- this is why this ring is an experiment, and one I'll be keeping and wearing myself! The main reason is to see for myself the way the metal acts with heavy wear, but the fact that no one but me will be inconvenienced if things get wonky is a Good Thing. I do not like to explore serious learning curves on commission pieces!
One of the soldering items was my first soldering of the sterling/platinum alloy, using the solder the company sells for such. It went well, for the most part... but everything got far hotter than is usual or even possible for sterling! We had some serious glowing going on, and regular sterling would have been pretty fried. This stuff was great, though, and ended up with pretty much no oxidation- interesting!
The solder melts and flows at a temp way higher than hard silver solder. I'd have been more freaked out by this if I hadn't encountered the same thing with palladium white gold. As it was, I forged ahead, and things look good right now.
I'll mention that the solder- sold in thin sheets- seems to be very brittle indeed, and I hope this does not give me problems when I go to round my ring. But then- this is why this ring is an experiment, and one I'll be keeping and wearing myself! The main reason is to see for myself the way the metal acts with heavy wear, but the fact that no one but me will be inconvenienced if things get wonky is a Good Thing. I do not like to explore serious learning curves on commission pieces!
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Date: 2008-03-08 11:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-09 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-08 11:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-09 02:45 am (UTC)Still- in general, I do not take on a commission if I have no experience whatsoever in the tech involved. This is why I'm pleased to be experimenting with the sterling/platinum on my own dime- while I might agree to such a thing if my other experience convinces me I can handle it, I'm much happier when I have personal experience with a similar project.