Hardening ear posts on studs after soldering?

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hi, After I have soldered my ear posts to the back of my ear
studs(silver) I am worried that they have become too soft and will
bend if people aren’t careful with them. Is there any way I can
harden them up a bit afterwards. Would quenching them in water
straight away make a difference? Any advice is much appreciated.

Best wishes, and thanks to the people behind this site, I learn
something new every day.

Karen

2 
    Hi, After I have soldered my ear posts to the back of my ear
studs(silver) I am worried that they have become too soft and will
bend ...Is there any way I can harden them up a bit afterwards.

Hi Karen: My very first instructor always had us grasp the end of
the post with a pair of flat nose pliers and while pulling on it,
twist it three times at least. If is isn’t soldered well, it’ll come
off and you need to know so you can fix it. If it’s well soldered,
the twist won’t be visible but the stud will then be very hard. It
should make a ping sound when flicked with the end of your
fingernail. You probably want to simply solder a number of posts on
a piece of silver and practice twisting so you don’t bend them. You
need to pull straight and twist at the same time. Try it.

Kay

3

Hi Karen, There are a couple of things you can do to work-harden the
posts.

Depending on the finish you want on the rest of the piece, you could
tumble the whole thing in steel shot for 20 - 30 minutes to
work-harden it. This will also burnish the piece and give it a nice
lustre finish.

If you don’t want that, you can go the more labor-intensive route
and hammer/tap the posts on a steel block with a steel hammer, dap,
etc. for about 10 minutes to give you work-hardening. You’ll want to
continually rotate the posts while doing this so that they don’t end
up flattened.

The key (for me at least) to soldering on posts is to get the main
piece hot enough for the solder to flow and then put the nearly-cold
post right into the “pond” of liquid solder, keeping my flame on it
just barely long enough to get it there. The post is so tiny that it
will come up to solder temp virtually immediately, and my steel
tweezers holding the post act as enough of a heat sink to keep most
of the post from hardening, as long as I get the torch out of the way
quickly enough. It doesn’t ALWAYS work, but it works on the first
try a very large percentage of times, so the odds aren’t awful. Takes
practice to develop, though.

Good luck!
Karen Goeller
@Karen_Goeller
http://www.nolimitations.com
Handcrafted and Unique Artisan Jewelry

1 Like
4

Karen, Don’t forget to check the archives for answers, as I believe
this has been covered in the past :slight_smile: To work-harden the sterling
posts, just grasp the end with a pair of pliers and give the post a
half turn. In addition to stiffening the post, it double checks
your solder joint! Judy in Kansas, where the tornados really whacked
the Kansas City area last night. Lots of damage, but only one known
life lost. Good warning system.

5

Hi Karen,

 I have soldered my ear posts to the back of my ear studs(silver)
I am worried that they have become too soft and will bend if people
aren't careful with them.  Is there any way I can harden them up a
bit afterwards.

Ear posts can be hardened after soldering byh work hardening. This
can be done by grasping the end of the post with a pliers & pulling
on it. Another way is to twist it a few turns. A pliers or pin vise
cn be used for twisting.

Dave

6

Grasp the post, gently, with flat nose pliers and twist the post 90
degrees one way and then 90 degrees the other. This gentle twisting
will work harden the silver post. Sue Dorman @Sue_Dorman
www.suedorman.com

7

Hi Karen, The easiest way to work-harden annealed earring posts is to
twist them. Grab the post with pliers so that the post is parallel to
the pliers’ jaws and concealed within them (in other words, not at
right angles). Then gently twist the post a full revolution, being
careful to keep it straight at all times. Sometimes I also move the
pliers up the post so I’m twisting from the center of the post rather
than right at the solder join. This is the time-honored method of
dealing with this situation.

Beth

8

Karen, Hold your earring tightly in one hand, with the other hand use
a kneedlenose plier to twist the post. Make sure it stays straight
and perpendicular to the earring. It doesn’t take much to do the job.

9

After soldering my posts on, I give them a firm twist with my
pliers to make sure they are soldered on tightly. this serves to
assure that all is well, and also hardens the posts. Alma

10

After soldering and pickle use parallel pliers and hold the post
turn or twist the post up to half a turn ,this will work harden the
post as well as test your solder joint.

11

Whenever you solder ear posts to earrings, they become annealed. I
recommend holding the end of the post in flat pliers and rotating
half to one whole turn. This tests the joint and hardens the metal
where it is softest.

Alan Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts 760 Market Street - Suite 900 San
Francisco, CA 94102 tel: 415-391-4179 fax: 415-391-7570
http://www.revereacademy.com email: alan@revereacademy.com

12

“Karen Clynes” Here I can call on borrowed glory. At a recent
workshop, Alan Revere suggested grabing the ear post and giving them
a quarter turn. This would both test the join and work harden them.
Thank you Alan.