Can I melt down old jewelry that has solder spots in it? I have a bag of old silver jewelry and a silversmith I spoke to said she couldn’t do it because most of it had solder and I’d need to cut out the soldered areas but I just watched a video of a silversmith who melted down a bunch of stuff and didn’t seem worried about soldered spots.
Well, Spanish treasure to be exact. But most of us know them as pirate coins, "pieces of 8" and "gold doubloons"! Some of the latest solid silver and gold Spanish treasure to come out of the forge. Struck with dies, not poured in molds; just the way it was done 400 years ago. I sure enjoy making these!
Rock or Rita, who can say…
The body is a Wyloo Agate cab, eyes are carnelian
This was actually a challenging ring to make for me. Thoughts on how I can improve my results?
Long time, no post! I took almost a year long hiatus from smithing to deal with some not so fun life stuff. I’ve been hitting the bench hard over the past couple months and it feels great! I’m experimenting a lot with my style, and I can’t get enough of squiggly and wavey motifs. I sawed the ring band out from silver sheet and got to stampin’. I want to make a million more bands like this ✨
I have a b tank and regulator and hoses from Rio. It’s not snug ? What am I missing here? Can’t post a vid either for some reason. Obviously I have not turned it on either. Help!
I’ve been using a homemade pickle (1cup white vinegar, 1 tbsp salt) and it seems to be working very well but I’m wondering if there’s a benefit to using store bought pickle? Why don’t I see more people using this homemade solution. It seems like all the big jewelry accounts on YouTube use the store bought stuff.
So I’m attempting to make my first shadowbox ring and I went to set the stone and it got completely stuck. Absolutely nothing I do gets it out. Any tips? I’m so frustrated, I just spent like three days on this ring.
UPDATE:
It came out! My husband ended up flattening a dental tool to somehow wedge it in and pry it out. Thank you for all the advice, I learned a lot! I really appreciate this sub. You guys are awesome.
So I made this piece, which has been quite… fun… lol. Originally the silver on the front was a beautiful ornate knot pattern wire, but I couldn’t for the life of me get it to solder on the brass behind it, and eventually I flipped it over and heated it from the back and pushed it down and when I turned it right side up I saw it had all melted! Hahah. Anyway I’ve been trying to make this work anyway and I’m pretty pleased with it all. I set the stone last night and had the bail attached, but during setting I broke the bail off…… of course. So I had to heat the piece and try reattaching the bail. No success so far. Anyway last night I took the piece out of the pickle and didn’t notice anything too funky, but when I just went to check it out it has this hardened blue stuff adhered to it. It’s pretty hard to get off. Is that due to the bronze we think? Any ideas lol?
(I am a beginner I know it's not great)
I don't think I used enough solder or didn't heat it properly or something.. but anyways I put it in the vice to drill a whole in the back and squeezed it too tight and now I have a pretty big gap in the bezel and backing. I keep trying to get some more solder in there but it won't flow. I don't have any way of sanding down the thin surfaces in the gap so I'm wondering if there's anything I can do.
I'm clamping it down while I solder but that doesn't seem to be doing the trick. Is there anything I can do or is she a goner?
hello everyone i’m just starting out with silversmithing and im wondering if anyone has any recommendations for where i can buy silver from that i dont need a business licence for as i don’t have one :) thankyou! im from the uk if that helps.
Hello!
I took a ring in to a local (well reviewed) jeweler for a resizing and a polish. When I went to pick it up, I was informed that it had turned a bit gold-ish and they weren't sure why, but no matter how much he polished it was staying that color.
A quick Google told me the likely culprits were that it was plated and the base metal had been exposed (not the case here), or firestaining/firescale from the copper in the alloy. At this point, the ring was uniformly gold (other than the new piece of silver where it was sized) and I wasn't so convinced. After three days of wear however, splotches appeared all over and now this seems much more likely.
Can anyone confirm if this is firestaining/firescale? (Photo next to stainless watch included to capture the gold-ish color)
If so, is it fixable? Should this be requested of the original jeweler as a fix, or taken elsewhere? I know silver is trickier to work with than gold, but this is definitely not my area of expertise.
Thanks for any input - it's much appreciated!
Fine and sterling silver. Not sure what the pear stone is - I pulled it from a ring I bought at a market. The freeform rose cut is moss agate, and the kyanite earrings I shared a few days ago (before adding findings - I got sick so haven’t gifted them to my SIL yet)
I make fidget rings like this. These "charms" are basically hold by 1.5x0.7mm (thickness) jump rings in D shape (as the ring bands is half-round). I handmade all of these and always use hard solder on every joints. Someone ordered this ring 2 months ago and told me today the flower simply failed off and claimed it was structural faulty. The flowers always have a flat base and the jump ring is also filed slightly flat at the top to attach better. How can I improve this design? Reduce the size of the flowers? Make the jump rings thicker? Or do this one entirely different?
I am working on a ring combining silver with zirconium. I am thinking that the black and silver color would give a cool contrast.
However, I am not sure if I can put the silver with the zirconium in the vitrex acid solution?
Hopefully anyone here has some experience? :)
I don't have a tumber....so other than a little hammering on the wire area how would I work harden this piece? It's extremely soft right now from the 4 pieces being soldered onto it.
Chains are my least favorite pieces to make, but always a labor of love. Only had 3 weak solder joins break, out of 23 links!
Does anyone know why this keeps happening?
I’m using siraya tech true blue and procast investment
3.5 inch flask 720g 290ml
My burnout cycle is going to be attached below
I’m melting my silver in a furnace at 980 centigrade, I wait till furnace is at 980 then put my silver in wait till it’s liquid and take flask out of oven place into vacuum then pour the silver. I have added pictures of my previous attempt aswell that one was poured at 1030C, my prints are cleaned properly first with a toothbrush then using an ultra sonic cleaner for around 1min, prints then put in a food dehydrator at 35C for around 5 minutes so it’s completely dry and cured for 10Mins and flipped round for another 10Mins