But letting poverty stop me from even trying is even more
expensive. I'm already almost paralysed by discouragement, please
don't discourage me more :)
Been there, done that Andrew. First off, we all agree that trying to
hammer out wire in this day and age is a little nuts, I think. I
would pose a question to Andrew - Why do you need wire? Turning an
ingot into a long, skinny, regular shape is laborious, especially
when you can just buy it. There’s no practical reason why it can’t
be, though, with a good hammer. Reasons why it ~shouldn’t be~ -
economics - have been spoken.
Take that same process and ingot and make some “thing” out of it, and
nobody will say a word. Well, maybe… That is the roots of
forging, repousse, chasing, sculpture, how the Mayans and the
Egyptians made most of their things, and on and on. So, hammer away
Andrew - maybe you’ll just drive yourself nuts trying to make wire,
maybe you’ll find that you are aborn forger (in the goldsmith sense
;} and come up with something really interesting. I sort of gag on
saying it: "The Creative Process’, but that’s exactly what it is.
Exploring, trying things, finding your way and maybe new ones,
artistically.
I don't think brass and copper are much more difficult to work or
to solder
I’m not going to argue with Len and Judy because it’s true. I DO
think the minor differences with oxides, cleanliness and fluxing is
just enough to be frustrating to someone who can’t even work silver
yet. As the quote says - they’re not ~much~ more difficult. It’s
just a matter of opinion that silver is more beginnner friendly,
especially soldering…