I have a sterling silver ring that the shank has broken on that
needs repaired. Of course it broke close to the stone on the shank.
The challenge I have is that the bezel setting has a design all
around the circumference of the setting. I normally remove the onyx
stone and repair the shank. However I can’t see a way to remove the
stone without damaging the design in the metal. So. my question is
does anyone have any ideas for heat sink so I don’t have to remove
the stone, any mediums you can think of thatI can use, that would
help prevent breakage is appreciated.
Sorry, I don’t believe there is any substance that will protect the
stone from the heat required to solder silver right next to the
stone. In the days before lazer welding and pulse-arc welding, I
would quote to cut off the bezel to remove the stone, solder the
shank, then restore the bezel and set the stone as it was. A huge
cost.
Pulse-arc welders are a godsend for situations like this. Pulse-arc
has more power and works better on silver. Welding is not always as
good as solder, but in this case, welding is the best way.
I found a little bit of sand left over from my kids sand box, that
had not been used and put it in a empty can and filled it with
water, put the stoneside down in it, and it worked very well. Heidi
there are a number of products available: vigor’s heat shield being
one of the best. Kool Jool is garbage (if any of you just bought it
I urge you to send it back unopened as soon as you can post it!). I
use wet wadded newsprint- it works quite well and is free. I have
used a number of refractory pastes that protect stones for hit and
run soldering operations. There are also “cool cups” sold by some
vendors that use cross locking tweezers suspended over an amount of
water with the stone submerged in the water to the degree possible
that are supposed to protect the stone from damage- i haven’t used
the set up because wet newsprint works for me in most situations. rer