I’d like to make headpins that have a gold ball and silver bottom.
Any ideas? I searched the forum in as many ways as I could think of.
Hello Craig,
Well, it’s tedious but not particularly hard if you use Argentium
sterling because you can treat it like gold when you solder. Any
reason for not just making head pins with gold wire??
Melt scrap gold on your soldering brick or charcoal to form the
balls.
Cut your silver wire and flux the end of the wire and a tiny spot on
the gold ball. Put a piece of silver solder on the brick, and torch
it until it beads up and immediately touch the fluxed end of the
silver wire to it.
The solder should cling to the end of the wire and perhaps run up
the wire a bit. Then heat the gold ball, when the flux goes glassy,
touch the soldered end of the wire to the spot and watch for the
solder to flow onto the gold ball.
Tedious. Torch control is necessary. Practice helps too.
I’ve not tried this, but you might just try plunging the fluxed end
of the wire into the molten gold ball. I suspect the temp of the
molten gold will determine whether or not the silver melts into the
ball. An experiment.
Let us know if you try this and how it came out.
Judy in Kansas, who is thawing the turkey.
Oh Craig, it just occurred to me that you might have problems with
the silver solder running all over the gold ball. In that case, use
easy gold solder.
Judy in Kansas
Hi, I have done this by melting a gold ball, and then fusing a
silver wire to it. I know that it works well with Argentium
Sterling. It would probably work with other silver alloys as well.
Cynthia Eid
Find someone with a PUK or an Orion, it’s a very simple job with
that. 
CIA
It would probably work with other silver alloys as well.
Standard sterling alloys don’t really fuse very well. Argenitum and
the other similar alloys are much better at fusing.
I’d just solder the balls on with gold solder.
Have fun and make lots of jewelry.
Jo Haemer
www.timohtywgreen.com