Platinum is very different to work with than gold, and if you are not
used to it it can really throw you off. What is it you are trying to
make? That will make a big difference in wether it is even possible.
A simple band with maybe a four prong mounting might not be too
difficult if you allready know how to fabricate such an item in gold.
Soldering platinum can be scary if you are used to gold. If your gold
turned that color, it would be a puddle on the soldering block! You
MUST wear eye protection to solder on platinum. You must buy platinum
solders and keep your sodlering block clean of gold debris. You can
weld the seam in a ring shank by rolling a peice of the platinum you
are using very thin and jamming a tiny piece into the joint. The
joint should fit perfectly flush, with just a tiny bit of the rolled
platinum showing all the way around. Use a very hot, pinpoint type of
flame and melt the rolled out metal piece all the way around. Don’t
worry about melting the ring shank-you can’t do it with a bench
torch. The shank will turn bright white when you heat it hot enough
to weld and the wavelength of the light will damage your eyes. (Wear
goggles!) After you file and polish, you will have a perfect joint
that will not show. Using solder will leave a darkish line, and I
don’t think it is any easier. I haven’t done a lot of fabrication, my
experience has been that platinum will roll and pull pretty much like
gold, so if you are working with an ingot you can roll out the shank
and pull down some wire to make the head. Use solder on the head.
Filing on the platinum feels soft, more like silver, and it will fill
up your file and burrs. I strongly recomend you get a platinum
polshing kit, it comes with sample sizes of four compounds and will
give you a much brighter polish so you can be proud of your finished
piece. Do not plan a project that involves casting platinum unless
you have access to a platinum casting service. It is not something
you can do with your gold casting equipment. Good luck, and think of
this as a learning experience, the start of your platinum skill
repetoir! Marggi
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