I have a situation where gold and silver are alloying into each other
(eutectic melding) and creating a mess. Lets see if anyone has ideas.
We make an intricately textured sterling silver earring that gets an
18K Yellow Gold bezel soldered into the center. The piece, then, gets
liver of sulfur patina. Liver of sulfur will not color gold, but
blackens the sterling nicely.
The problem is, the gold and silver are alloying into each other
(eutectic melding), so that the gold is crawling into the valleys of
the texture, and these alloyed areas will not patina. I understand
why this is happening. My soldering people are overheating the piece.
They are also using water torches, which I think are problematic. We
are having a bit of a language barrier issue, and they dont
understand what eutectic melding is, so I need to devise a fool proof
strategy.
How can I set this item up for them so that this happens less often?
Lower temp solder? Paste solder? Has anyone else had this problem
with Sterling and gold?
Thanks,
Troy