Mis-used jewelry terms

Jewelry Discussion
61 
CAN platinum be soldered with gold solders? I just did it 3 minutes
ago on a diamond ring. Does it form a strong, permanent joint - is
it PROPER? Absolutely not. Platinum needs to be worked on it's own
terms just like every other metal, or else you're just another
hack.

Well, there’s the matter of context. If you just did it then there
was probably a good reason to, John… right?.

Are we talking about gold soldering 19 itsy pieces of PT to make a
threestoner, or are we talking about sizing a pave eternity band?
Sometimes all you can do is what you can do. If your hands are tied
because of the situation you make a judgement call, sometimes
involving less than ‘ideal’ technique ( am I really going to unset an
inch worth of pave so that the joint can be PT welded or am I going
to 20Kwhite it with diamonds in place?) but its the outcome that
should be most important. Just make sure your outcome is actually
sufficient. Not for the sake of one’s peers, but for the sake of the
client, which eventually equates to your own sake.

Not to intentionally further devolve this but here’s an annoying
example. Lady hands me this designer piece, fancy schmancy hallmark.
VVS goods bead set in sterling (not actual bead setting, but that
cast pinpoint stuff, with lots of tiny, hard to polish recesses).
Yeah you can imagine what that looks like after a few months. She
relates how she sent it back for cleaning and the maker/seller
charged her eighty bucks, she wore it twice and its icky once again.
“Do something Neil”.

So after driving myself to distraction getting the recesses bright
and white I lacquer them. Do I like lacquer? Is this my preference?
No, my preference would be to have had the bloody thing made in white
gold and rhodiumed to begin with, made to suit the job asked of it.
Did the designer do a ‘proper’ job of it? Not in my opinion. He/she
made a determination to use a, imho, wholly unsuitable material in
such a way as to insure an unfavorable outcome. But the designer is
the one who’s got her several thousand bucks. Plus her eighty. He’s
having filet tonight, all I’ll get out of this is a mushroom
omelette.

Who has the higher standards and who has the money? Life ain’t fair.

62 
Gold solder will indeed stick to platinum. Platinum melts at 3214.9
F white gold solders melt between 1200 F

First a mea culpa that I realized was going to be facing me today. I
had another number wrongly in mind when I wrote the melting points -
won’t belabor the train of thought, but of course it was wrong. 10%
iridium platinum melts at 3272F - as Jim says it’s plenty, still.

As for the rest of it, I don’t think many people understand what
they are doing and saying. Indeed, it can be done —BUT…

I’m a platinum smith - I solder, braze, weld, make, repair and/or
polish so mething out of platinum each and every day. I’m a
destination - people bring it to me. I don’t say that out of, “I
know more…” Just that I see, and have seen, a whole lot of it. I
also have used gold solder uncounted times because it was the only
option - either in the presence of stones or lower melting metals.
It’s easy, you just solder it together.

BUT. The industry lumps maintenance (tips, sizing…) under jewelry
repair, but I make the distinction in my own mind that repair is
actually “fixing broken things”. Makes no real difference, it’s just
me. In the post that is here today I said I had just soldered
platinum with gold, but I realize I should have also mentioned it
was a popped gold-soldered joint.

A diamond top put on a reshanking job that could only use gold
because of the diamonds. It didn’t pop under stress, it was only
daily wear… Just “magically” broke…

The #1 repair on platinum jewelry aside from maintenance (speaking
from much experience) is broken gold-soldered joints. Ring sizings
that just pop open, prongs that just snap off - half shankings that
just break off entirely. Over and over again, like a broken record.
Yes, you can gold solder platinum, you can finish it and put it out
to the public, and everything appears to be hunky-dory. If it’s a
straight solder without other structure, there’s an 80% chance that
it will cross my bench in a year or two, or less, though. And yes
sometimes it’s silver and sometimes it’s 22kt… gold. Obviously it’s
not a single jeweler doing it or any one solder or metal - it’s
truly an average phenomenon.

Whether it’s heat, expansion or the weather I do not care. You think
you’re soldering it, it seems just fine, you’re a fine jeweler and
everybody loves you, but you just created a booby trap. Sometimes
it’s the only way, sometimes people just don’t know how to work
platinum. They pop - daily. Trust me… You think it works but it
just doesn’t - not in the longrun.

63

I am a bit in he wrong school here but I think you will need a
higher melting solder. Even 24 gold seems a bit low.

Check with Johnson Mathey… ( maybe Englehard ) they should offer
something.

it has been a long time and these companies changed a lot since I
worked with something like this in about 1960.

jesse

64 
If it's a straight solder without other structure, there's an 80%
chance that it will cross my bench in a year or two, or less,
though.

But that is a very important distinction. Any joint must always be
structurally sound. If joint gives, it is not because of solder, but
because of execution.

Leonid Surpin

65

I wonder if all this talk about gold solder on plat is just talking
about 2 different things.

1- an ornament soldered to a piece, decorative trim or something with
no stress requirements like an initial to the top of a ring, can be
gold soldered without worrying about it.

2- a solder joint that has strength requirements, such as a head to a
shank or a sizing job will indeed be weak if gold solder is used on
plat and it will not hold up under daily wear.

Tom