A while ago, someone posted that he had found gel flux to be more
helpful than other fluxes for soldering Argentium Silver. I had never
tried gel flux before for ANY soldering of ANY metal!
Rio Grande very kindly and generously sent me a jar of gel flux to
try out. Thank you, Rio Grande!
I did several comparisons on the same piece of Argentium—using
ProCraft gel flux and liquid My-T-Flux.
-
First, I tried fusing Argentium Sterling granules to Argentium
Sterling sheet. I did not notice any difference. -
After pickling, I soldered an inch of wire to sheet with hard
Argentium solder. -
After pickling, I soldered a wire to sheet with medium Argentium
solder. -
After pickling, I soldered a of wire to sheet with easy Argentium
solder.
On two of the solderings, the solder flowed significantly better
with the gel flux than with the liquid flux. On one soldering, the
flux did not seem to matter.
I will continue to do more experimenting and soldering with gel
flux, but so far, I am impressed!
I think that people who are accustomed to paste flux may especially
like using gel flux. It is nice that it stays where you put it, as
paste flux does. Liquid fluxes often need to be re-applied after
heating—as with anti-firescale fluxes.
In conclusion, I recommend Pro Craft gel flux to anyone who has been
having difficulty soldering Argentium Silver.
Cynthia Eid