Am I the only one who has given up on sterling ear posts?
I use sterling because of personal experience - my ears react
badly with stainless. I also use thick wire, for the same
reason. I haven’t had any break yet (cross yer fingers), but I
haven’t been doing metalwork for that long.
How do you solder stainless posts onto precious metal?
~kara (in ggrrrrr ‘sunny’ California, where it’s raining
again, and cold to boot)
Am I the only one who has given up on sterling ear posts?
Hi Kara,
Alot of people ask me what my posts, and my backings for that
matter are made of. They really want to hear gold, what they
hear is silver and the few times I used “hypo-allergenic
non-silver metal” sales dropped. So I don’t think I would want to
tell people they were getting stainless. Even though I don’t
think alot of people have ears that react like they are afraid
they will it’s all in their perception of value.
Karen
Kara, Soldering the stainless posts takes more heat than soldering
silver. I have almost an obsession about earrings being as light
as possible and that makes it a bit harder. The stainless post
looks red before it will solder and black when it comes out of
the pickle. The black polishes off and to be honest, sometimes
also the post. I also favor a thicker wire if you are talking 20
gage. This is what I use for ear wires which I prefer to wear in
my own ears. I’ve not had anyone complain that the stainless
bothered their ears but I always try to make sure that the
customer knows what they are buying.
Marilyn Smith, midwest America
Hey! Kara, just like you would s/s, make sure you use lots of
flux.