Hello all. I have tried to post here a few times earlier, but without
much success. Anyway, hope this one goes through. Here inlies my
dilemma.
I have been working with a suite of married metals that I have
developed using a combination of sterling silver and copper which I
call ‘puddingstone silver’ (Any better ideas for names?). The problem
results when I attemt to hand-forge it. I have tried everything,
resulting in a great deal of waste which tends to get a bit
expensive. I have tried re-annealing every few hammer blows, but
seems to not affect it very well. It still always seems to tear along
the silver-copper interface.
Since copper seems to have a bit higher annealing temperature than
silver, I have also tried to anneal the metal composite at a bit
higher temperature than one normally does for silver to no avail.
This has resulted in many utterances of profanity. I heal up the
tears with hard silver solder, re-anneal, and it tears again as soon
as I smack it, it seems.
Anyone have any insight on the matter? Any input would be greatly
appreciated.