Hmmm, I don’t wait but a second or two before I quench. I will check out the info too. Thanks so much. 
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Do a prepolish and coat with alcohol and boric acid first, then burn off the alcohol leaving a white layer of boric acid. This layer helps to prevent firescale. Heat evenly until red hot. Turn down the lights or even turn them off so that you can see the red. I have a switch on my bench that turns all the lights off when I anneal. Once the red leaves, quench, pickle and you should be as soft as it will get. Annealed 16 and especially 14 gauge will give you a fight when you go to form your cuff. I have a hydraulic press and set of bracelet formers that work well for heavier cuffs. I still have to do a little forming by hand. Good luck.
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Thank you very much. Great tutorial to follow. Assuming that I mix the alcohol and bric acid, what are the proportions!
In my experience you won’t harden copper or sterling silver that way, very often I leave a piece sometimes a large piece for hours to cool while I am working on another item, does not effect the annealing
Donnie. (Highlands)
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Sounds like you are enamoured with enameling! I have all the supplies and am setting up an enameling area… what type of eye protection do you use with the Map gas?
Because I wear prescription glasses and can’t go without them nor can I wear contacts (not that contacts are safe in a jewelry workshop anyway), I got these clip-on lenses. They really do make a difference- I’m prone to migraines from light, and gave myself a couple doozies before these came. That hasn’t happened while I’ve been wearing them, and they do make it a lot easier to “see the temperature” of the piece I’m torching. My only issue is that I have to switch to the pair of glasses that fits closer to my temples when I use these, because on a wider/looser pair the added weight of these pulls them down my nose. One of those straps behind the head might be a good add-on.
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Make a saturated solution. Add boric acid to the alcohol until it won’t dissolve any more and there is some visible on the bottom. Also, use 90% or higher alcohol…the remaining % is water and boric acid doesn’t dissolve in water.
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Hello Sharpold,
I use a lot of 16g copper and the tips available for my oxygen/propane setup won’t generate the wide open flame necessary to even anneal a 3x4 inch piece of copper, never mind get it anywhere near soldering temp. I went to the box store and bought an inexpensive Bernzomatic TS8000 torch for MAPP gas, found the gas cylinders at a local welding supply. I put my piece on a hard charcoal block and and lit it up. It roars like a tiger, puts out a big, hot flame and solved my problem. I use that torch for just about everything copper. Hope this helps.
Alaska Silver
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