How do I locate the solder joint in a gold ring?
Heat it quickly without any flux or boric acid/alcohol coat and the joint may appear. Make sure that you remove any heat sensitive stones first. Good luck and share what works…Rob
A trick I was shown years ago was to use regular iodine. If applied to something with a solder seam, like the bottom of a ring shank, the seam will turn a darker color than the surrounding areas.
We used this when the other torch method was too risky, but make sure it’s regular ol’ iodine and not the new colorless varieties.
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Brilliant tip, Eric
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We were taught to use the Iodine test in Bowman Tech oh so many decades ago, but it seems to only really work reliably on lower melting temperature solders.
It is an aid, but not a perfect indicator.
Also you need to train your eyes to spot a pit or two, or a slight variation in the shank, usually right where you might expect to find a seam.
Sometimes you look at the ring size, and know where you should expect to find a previous dolder seam.
The higher concentrations of iodine work well. They are hard to find. Try Amazon look for 2%.
I think I bought Carlyle Lugols Iodine. The stronger the better.
I was mistaken. The Lugol is good but the CVS is a little better because it has 2% Iodine and 2.4% Sodium Iodine. Both work. Sometimes to see the joint, you have to tilt the ring to a certain angle from the light source. Iodine can also emphasize the tiny dots if it was over heated. I always try the iodine first. For a clean weld, be sure to get all the iodine off before you do any soldering. There is such a thing - higher than 2% but I have been unable to find any lately.