On to the next part of the question about business and making money.
I just recieved 6 feet of 12 ga sterling wire annealed dead soft in
my favorite little fed ex box. My fed ex man gets the best
christmas present every year, he is my hero. I paid 95 cents a dwt
for it. Raw silver would cost me about 74 cents a dwt. Now I say it
would take a least 30 minutes minimum to alloy the silver and pull it
to the right guage. If you get $50 an hour for your time you just
added $25 to the cost of the wire, and unless you have a controlled
oven to anneal you will never get it annealed as nicely as the metal
house can. Time is money and we need to be as productive as possible
and use our time wisely to make the most money with our time as we
can. The argument what if you need it right now, if you need 10 feet
of wire right now you did not plan your time very good which also
cost you money, if I need 2 feet of 18 guage in the middle of the
night I will pull down some of my 12 ga. I hear all the time from
jewelry artist they never have the time go get more done, they ask me
how do I run a store and still have time to make jewelry. One answer
is I don’t waste time pulling wire and rolling out sheet, I don’t
make my own solder or mix my own alloy. Time is to valuable. Thats
my two cents that just cost me 20 bucks of bench time to write.
Keep busy everyone
Bill Wismar