Oh, rats, no wire solder? I'll take what I can get, but wire solder has always been the easiest for me to use.
I routinely cut sheet solder into thin strips and hold it in
cross-locking tweezers to use as wire solder would be used from the
coil. I can get varied thicknesses that way. I have also forged out
wire solder (or you could roll it out) and cut it with shears along
its length, to get thinner wire solder, or to cut snippets. Whatever
I have on hand,I use. Probably it will all be available some day, if
we all really start using a lot of Argentium.
So far, I have found that Argentium makes nice head pins for pearls,
with a good smooth ball end. I used it to trap clusters of pearls on
either side of a chain, melting the final ball very close to the
pearl with my propane-ox little torch, tip # 4. It worked very well.
(Ball end, pearl, goes through chain, pearl, ball end. ) I used 24 or
26 gauge wire. Just a slight buffing was required after the final
ball was melted.
M’lou Brubaker, Jeweler
Goodland, MN
www.craftswomen.com