This is an interesting thread. I tried switching my torch to my left
hand yesterday. Seems to me, that flame control is far more important
than the actual placement of the solder on a joint. Here’s why: I use
either a pick or tweezers to lay the solder where I want it and then
make it flow in which ever direction I need it to with the flame.
Putting the torch in my left hand felt unnatural and I had to pay
extra attention to not “overshoot” the joint. (Kind of like when new
people start with a torch, they’ll solder the jump ring only to melt
the chain which was laying on the pad behind the joint) Anyway… I’ll
give it another whirl because it seems like a good idea…but it didn’t
seem to work for me (yet).
My dominant hand is left. As someone else here mentioned, we lefties
had to learn at an early age to adapt as most things are designed
for righties. (No, I’m not talking politics here.) I have always used
both hands, almost interchangeably. Depending on the logistics of
what I am soldering, I use either hand to hold the torch, or solder
pick, etc. After many years it just seems natural.
I find this amusing that there are so many cases for the left vs
right, dominant vs. the secondary. I drive a manual shift, the right
hand now operating the gears as second nature, but, when I landed in
New Zealand, and had to drive a camper van with a Volkswagen engine
no less, my secondary hand and brain completely freaked. Everything
was in reverse! We made it somehow and got so used to the left handed
world, that when we returned to the states after a month, I kept
trying to veer the car to the left lane!
Sometimes a jig is handy, but I guess I just find the way I solder
is the way I learned from somebody else who used their dominant hand
for the torch.
You can imagine that in researching the Flexshaft book, I asked 10
jewelers the uses of some particular burs. Ten goldsmiths, ten
answers, all different, and each one exclaiming, their way was the
best one of all.
It is what makes us all incredibly diverse, our styles notable and
our students crazy! I cant’tell you how many times students come to
us and say, the last teacher I had said you should do it this way,
not your way.
In the end, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you make
wonderful work and share your work with the rest of the world.
-k
Karen Christians
M E T A L W E R X
50 Guinan St.
Waltham, MA 02451
Ph. 781/891-3854 Fax 3857 http://www.metalwerx.com/
Jewelry/Metalarts School & Cooperative Studio
I had tried putting copper wire as a heat sink around likely
melting candidates. That worked most of the time but it was time
consuming.
May I suggest trying the water-based correction fluid (like
“White-Out”) as a temperature guard. My experience with it on
sterling has been successful not only to keep solder from melting
during subsequent soldering operations, but also to protect adjacent
metal from heat damage. You don’t say what metal you use for your
rings, but I think this would be effective with gold work as well.
Hope this helps,
Judy in Kansas, where a cold front has blown in, bringing lower
temps and rain!
I’m another one who switches hands from one job to the next. I’ve
found that if I’m using a solder-pick, I like to keep the torch in my
left hand (right handed) but if I am doing extremely fine jobs where
I pre-place solder chips and have to play the flame over the work
just right, I’ll handle it with my right.
The only lessons I ever took in soldering were to watch a friend of
mine while he “repaired” my first few rings. I’d bring them to him
with the ends dressed and set up, and he’d let me watch while he
closed the gap with a drop of solder. I can’t, for the life of me,
recall which hand he used for what.
I am right handed, and for some reason have always held the torch in
my left hand, and the pick in my right to be used to maneuver the
solder where it should be, or to poke two pieces together when they
separated during the soldering process. It just felt right to do it
that way. Alma
Thank you for your suggestion of using “White-Out” as a temperature
guard. I have not used the material in that application. However, I
will surely try it. I use White-Out to prevent solder wicking up the
wires when soldering a box clasp to a braided wire bracelet. I wasn’t
too thrilled with it, even tho it was more efficient than anything
else that was available. A problem was that the fumes contaminate the
metal and therefore mess up solder flow. The piece has to be held in
a vertical position with the White-Out on the high side so that the
fumes and smoke move up and away from the solder seam. A second
problem is that when the piece is put in the pickle it forms an oily
material that I don’t like. Maybe the “cooked” White-Out should be
removed before the piece is dropped into the pickle pot. The
White-Out is most defiantly cooked because I put it as close to the
target solder joint as I can get it without getting any in/on the
intended solder joint area. I try hard to get it as close as possible
because I don’t want to see any solder wicked up the wires above the
solder joint. Maybe there is a better stop-flow type of material that
I should be using?
Captain Blood
"Marlinespike Seamanship in Precious Metals" @Alden_Glenda_Blood
Have you tried yellow orchre, the traditional solder stopper people
used before there was White-Out?
I second the yellow ochre nod, with hearty enthusiasm. I love that
stuff. One caveat, I don’t use water to make my paste, I use olive
oil, it stays put even better. I whole lot cheaper than white out
too.
