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Can you solder fine silver?

Jewelry Discussion
#1

Was: Tarnish resistant sterling

I have been looking for tarnish resistant sterling silver alloys. I have gotten many good reccomendations, especially for palladium sterling silver. I am interested in using fine silver for some designs (I know it’s very soft) my question is, can I solder it? I will fuse some joints but if I am adding an accent such, as a tube setting, that must be soldered. However I want to still mark it as .999. Maybe if I fuse as many joints as possible and then solder using sterling silver which melts at 60 degrees lower than fine silver? Or would I still no be able to mark it as fine silver?

#2

Yes, you can solder fine silver.

#3

Straight and to the point! I like that. Thank you. :slight_smile:

#4

Yes, fine silver can be soldered. I do It often when making a fine silver bezel for a small stone that isn’t going to see a lot of wear and tear. I am now experimenting with heavy walled (1 - 2 mm) fine silver bezels to see how they move when punched with a hammer and setting punch. More when I know it…Rob

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#5

And I can still hallmark it .999?

#6

Only the bezel is fine. The rest of the piece is sterling and it gets stamped sterling or .925.

#7

If I were to make the piece out of solid .999 silver and then solder, not fuse, the tube setting on would I still be able to hallmark it .999?

#8

That’s a question to be answered by others. When you work in sterling and solder it, the total pure silver content is reduced a bit from .925 silver, but we still stamp it sterling or .925. I would say that the same logic applies to your question. For me, the real question is, will the piece that you are making out of fine silver stand the wear and tear that it might be exposed to?

#9

There is some slack on precise quality marking. If you think about the weight of a solder pallion or two compared to even just a bezel I would guess that it’s entirely inconsequential.