This is an age old trick when you want to solder a ring, but you are not sure the stones will take the heat.
This ring was bought into me to be re-sized. So Having cut the shank, reduced it down 2 sizes, I am ready to solder. The gemstones are suspect and I don't think they will take the heat (1,000 deg c ish). So I grab a lid and fill it with water. Ideally this should be metal (mine is plastic as it was all I had to hand. Obviously if you are not carful, plastic and 1,000 deg don't get on too well. LOL
So the gemstones were immersed into the water using tweezers and the ring was fluxed. Thewater will naturally draw heat away from the ring, so a large and very localized flame is used to do this solder as quickly as possible.
The water will get warm (40deg c) whilst you do the job, but it ensures that the gemstones are not affected by the immense heat required to do the solder job.
Now all you have to do is file, sand and polish.
5 comments:
So simple! You don't even need any special heat barriers.
Does it only work with gold?
you can use this with silver, gold or platinum.
The critical thing is getting a hot enough flame to cope with the water drawing the heat off the ring.
It is a bit fiddly, but works well. I also have a water torch, so that helps tremendously.
I just learned something new - Mind you, I don't make this type of jewelry, but I hope that one day I will be able to (and afford some courses and the tools)!
That's very interesting. Thank you for sharing. Knowledge is power :)
Thank you Chris!!!
All this is so interesting even though I know nothing about jewelry making and have no patience for it! Although I did have a boyfriend in high school who made beautiful metal jewelry and the teachers all loved him. He talked about the process all the time; on every date and in every phone call.
Maybe if I had paid attention to him I'd be like you!!
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