I have been following the posts about Argentium silver and anti fire
scale fluxes for some time. I have been using Cupronil since around
1976. Cupronil is a great product in that it does exactly what it is
designed to do. It prevents fire scale and acts as a solder flux. The
use of the spray head on Cupronil’s bottle makes application very
easy. I have been using the same spray head for many years.
I cannot understand the rush to fabricate projects with Argentium
silver when the use of Cupronil or other anti fire scale fluxes on
sterling is so simply and cost affective.
From the posts, Argentium silver appears to be somewhat trickier to
use than sterling silver. On top of that, an ounce of Argentium
silver costs a $1.00 plus more than an ounce of sterling silver.
I have been using the anti fire scale vacuum casting process that
Lee Epperson demonstrated at a Tucson Gem and Mineral Show many years
ago. That process has allowed me to create three-dimensional objects
that I hesitated to do without the anti fire scale process. The
process is so simple I find it difficult to understand why anyone
would want to spend more money to cast with Argentium silver.
I remember there was a note on one of the early flyers on anti fire
scale metals that stated the metal should not be melted in a graphite
crucible. Can Argentium be melted in a graphite cruciblei
Firescuff flux seems to be a major pain to use. Why would anyone
want to use a product that costs about 4 times the cost other of
other available anti fire scale flues.
Smokie