Hello Everyone,
I’m a new full fledge member, (un?)fortunately I’m self taught (going on year 3ish after taking multiple metal smith courses several years ago, which obviously isn’t/wasn’t enough, as you will see. I’m now learning via painful and near bankrupting trial and error…lots of error. I scour the www watching videos everywhere I can find them. And read used jewelry books, currently just started Kallenberg’s Modeling in wax for jewelry and sculpture, 1981. Who knew?! I should’ve started out using wax…I would saved several thousand dollars In burnt/melted ring bezels…sigh
I’m about to order two 12" length’s of spring tempered 18k gold tubing. As I have acquired 4 perfect “end pieces” for the necklaces/neck rings I plan to make. The tubing is medium gauge (0.4mm thick ) has a 4.06mm OD with 3.26mm ID (8gauge) when I spoke to the manufacturer about bending it for chokers (with a 4.5" gap (1" of which will be taken up by the gold end pieces I’m inserting into the tube ends) they recommended I use no less than medium gauge and to have it spring tempered, so to allow for the torsion it will be under when one twists it slightly to get it on and off the neck. Thus preventing eventual cracking from brittleness.
Before starting all this I made a 12" length of fine silver tubing same ish diameter out of fine silver sheeting to test my piece, well I kinked it in several places of course, as the hanger wire I used to bend it didn’t fill the silver tube sufficiently and the gauge of the silver sheet was quite thin…but I can see the end result will be magnificent… if I can actually accomplish it. Thankfully, just before I ordered, I asked another question about the kind of 8 gauge wire I’d need to use to bend the straight pieces without kinking them. They said sterling silver would be good at a length of 18", long enough on each end to be able to make the arc I need and could be reused on the second piece and then as another necklace. As the silver is about $83 I thought this was a good idea as it’s malleable I’m guessing I should get the sterling silver wire 1/2 hard? Thankfully, she told me not to use any heat on the spring tempered tubing, which, obviously, renders the tubing no longer spring tempered (duh? Actually I didn’t know this-I’m “pretty much” self taught…ah still teaching) so in order to put my end pieces in, I’ll have to hire someone with a laser. Argh. I encountered this with my first neck rings several years ago when I ordered lovely push button clasps for wires without knowing they couldn’t be affixed via soldering due to the internal mechanisms…) still, glad I found out in time. And I’ve searched for weeks, but can only find videos/prior advice on bending tubing for small projects like earrings, and the ones on bending gold tubing all show the jewelers annealing the tubing repeatedly to shape it. Since I’m getting it spring tempered I cannot do that. One more thing, will the heat of putting a high polish affect the spring temper? I’ve noticed when attempting to get a high polish the metal gets hot, sometimes very hot. They said absolutely no heat! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you and I love reading this forum, I’ve just officially joined as a member (I thought I had before, but I guess that was a non paying membership?) anyhoo, I’m rambling. No hint or tip too small. Sincerely, Paddy Peters