My latest welding project

Jewelry Discussion
1

Your customer asks you to remove chased lettering from a sterling
plate. You can’t planish it out because the metal would dramatically
deform. You can’t fill it in with silver solder because of all the
pin holes and color difference. Electroforming won’t do it. What
would YOU do?

Here’s what I did… Jeffrey Herman Silversmith: Before & After (Tiffany Sterling Plate)

Thought you’d be interested.

Have a great weekend!

Jeff Herman

2

Jeff, very clean! Nice work.

I have used the laser to similarly overfill deep hand engrave
pieces, an you are right, it is a very time consuming process.

3

I’d like to ask a potentially very stupid question, but something I
thought about.

Wouldn’t it have been easier to cut out the engraving, and then
solder/weld in a piece?

Chris

4

Jeff,

Great job! I to have a PUK pro welder and I found the amount of new
work I can do is only limited my imagination. Having the scope is so
vital on jobs like this.

Thanks for sharing,
Mark

5

Interested is an Understatement Jeff! What a fabulous result. That
is absolutely pristine now.

Dinah

6

That’s a wonderful restoration! Forgive me for saying so though, but
the last two images are so perfect that they almost look as though
they could be CAD renderings?! I can’t see why they would be, as your
"after" pictures are always very impressive and obviously
photographs, but for some reason these two pictures just have a CAD
look about them. Please be assured that I’m really NOT trying to be
provocative.

Helen
UK

7

Chris,

That’s not a stupid question. The problem was that the Tiffany
housemark was right underneath the chasing.

Jeff

8

Hello Helen,

That’s what a perfect restoration job that’s photographed well should
look like ;~)

I assure you, no Photoshopping was used other than cropping and
adjusting the brightness and contrast.

Jeff

9

Great job, Jeff. I can’t imagine taking a job like that! I always
wonder, what will the client do with it now?

10

Hey Jeff,

That is truly impressive! Now I know how to “fix” those old hand
engraving messes I see!

Melissa Veres, engraver
http://www.melissaveres.com

11

Hello James,

Thanks for the compliment! The real difficulty was the letters were
chased and required abundant overfilling - and time.

Jeff

12

So, if you don’t mind my asking, what is the retail cost of such a
magnificent transformation?

Lee

13

Hello Lee,

Well, it was originally estimated at $800. Let’s just say I took a
beating adding on 10 hours. During this time I discovered a new
setting that was more to my liking, but by that time I had burned
through a lot of hours.

Sorry to be vague, but I don’t publish my hourly rate.

Live and learn,

Jeff Herman

14 
Well, it was originally estimated at $800. Let's just say I took a
beating adding on 10 hours. During this time I discovered a new
setting that was more to my liking, but by that time I had burned
through a lot of hours. Sorry to be vague, but I don't publish my
hourly rate.

No problem, not looking for trade secrets, you did a magnificent
job!

Lee