This is a great book, edited by a favorite of all Tim McCreight ISBN
#N-O-9615984-3-3.
Marta
My objection to the reticulation silver is that even after the fine silver has been brought to the surface, after reticulating it, the color assumes a yellowish--murky look.
G’day Alma; you could try dipping it for a few minutes in 10% nitric
acid - or ferric nitrate, until it visibly brightens, rinsing in
bicarbonate solution, a good wash under the tap, and a final brush
with a suede or brass brush cheers –
John Burgess; @John_Burgess2 of Mapua Nelson NZ
My objection to the reticulation silver is that even after the fine silver has been brought to the surface, after reticulating it, the color assumes a yellowish--murky look.
Dear Alma, I’ve found that when metal turns that yellowish color,
it’s usually because the metal was dirty when heated � probably from
pickle residue. To avoid this when I’m depletion gilding (a.k.a.
prepping for reticulation), I clean the metal with a brass brush
dipped in a slurry of baking soda and water. That usually does the
trick.
Beth
Great about Reticulation. Here is my offering, I prefer
to begin with fine silver. I also like to add texture prior to
reticulation, so the last I did BR (before robbery) was at school
where I used the green scrubbing pad and the rolling mill to do so. I
then shaped the piece and cleaned it before torching it. It seems the
highs and lows of the textured rolling makes a difference as to how
the silver reacts to the torching. You could see it as the silver
moved. the end result was great and I have had quite a few questions
of how I did it when i wear this piece.
I bezeled in a small but high domed round agate as well as a
trilobite.
Saw a great three building Ad Fresco downtown Los Angeles today, it
was for Apple, one of their great “Think different” series. That seems
to be my motto, and I certainly do so.
Teresa
Hi Alma -
I hesitate to jump in here - because I do not consider myself an
expert in reticulation by a long shot. In my limited experience, I
have “cleaned” the finished piece of reticulated silver that had
slight discoloration by going back to the same depletion gilding steps
of prepping the material - thereby bringing a fresh fine silver layer
to the reticulated surface. Only thing is - the fine silver would be
a surface treatment - so, it would need to be worn in a protected
environment of sorts (so that constant wear would not remove the fine
silver surface). Not sure if that would help in the situation you
described of the “yellowish --murky look” results , but perhaps worth
experimenting with.
By the way, “Metals Technic” is one of my favorite books too!
Cynthia
Great about Reticulation. Here is my offering, I prefer to begin with fine silver.
Hi Teresa, How can you reticulate fine silver? If reticulation is
the result of creating a “sandwich” of fine silver on the surfaces and
alloy in between (via depletion gilding), then it should be impossible
by definition to reticulate fine silver because there is no alloy! It
is, however, possible to heat texture most any metal and sometimes the
result looks similar to reticulation, i.e., a low-relief graininess
composed of little bumps. Could this be what you’re doing?
Beth
Depletion guiding doen’t “bring the silver to the surface” - it
disolves the copper on the surface away. If you’ve done that then the
article should be fine for fairly rough wear.
Hello Diane –
How I was taught to handle reticulating silver: the heating/pickling
cycle is 7 times, with brass brushing in between. You are not
looking for reticulation (that swirly / wrinkly stuff) in this
process. You are creating a process which separates the silver and
copper into different layers within the same sheet of metal (silver on
the outside and copper on the inside). This layering of metal is what
actually causes the reticulated surface to happen. By the time you get
to the last cycle, your annealing cycle will produce a ‘haystack’
color on the metal and you will know that you can reticulate after
that pickling/brass brushing. To reticulate, heat the metal evenly
at first and then when it’s really ready (close to that glassy state
just before meltdown), you can concentrate the flame and move it
slowly and methodically over the surface of the metal. Then pickle
and brass brush again. The side opposite the one you heated on that
last pass is where you will see the most dramatic reticulation. You
are right in that you will end up with a surface that is very uneven,
will be somewhat hard to work with and will be very brittle. If you
want to solder silver that has been reticulated, you will find that it
just soaks it up, so you will want to burnish the edge or surface that
you are planning to solder. It’s neat stuff, actually. Have fun !
Laura.
lwielser@att.net
Hi Tony -
Oh brother, thanks for clarifying my description! It’s like being
tongue twisted describing the process - and I recall a long round on
Orchid already recently on that very point. Oh well, a definite goof
of a description on my part! Instead of saying, “thereby bringing a
fresh fine silver layer to the reticulated surface” - what I intended
to say was “thereby resulting in a fine silver layer to the
reticulated surface”. Anyhow, I’m glad to know that in your
experience the surface treatment is quite durable. Thanks for jumping
in here. I don’t jump in on many “techie” questions - but the
intention was good! 
Cynthia
Does anyone know how to prevent the silver from becoming brittle
during reticulation? What gage do you like to work with?
Roxan O’Brien
Howdy Folks, I am NOT a metalsmith but ,as a hobby faceter, I enjoy
reading all jewelry related info. So pardon me if the following is
well known but I was wondering if would be possible (desirable?) to
selectively mask/protect a portion of the metal’s surface each time it
was pickled thereby creating a surface with both sterling AND depleted
silver (in some interesting patterm/design). Would the silver
’islands/areas’ still reticulate in proximity to the sterling areas?
Any on-line examples of what the results look like? How about
selective plating or kumbeu before the pickling/heating cycles? Carl
1 Lucky Texan
Roxan,
I assume that you are using Sterling Silver. Brittleness is a
consequence of the reticulation process. The process involves sweating
the metals surface (bringing it to a plastic state where it will
deform, hence the reticulated patterns) During the melting of the
surface layer the metal grains have grown and are at their maximum
size and when the flame is removed the grains remain in the large
state. This results in brittleness and the metal now has poor cold
working properties.
Similar problems occur if metal is over annealed. For example;
Sterling silver is annealed after cold working to 500 degrees Celsius
(first red). At this temperature the deformed grains, due to cold
working are recrystalised into new undistorted grains which returns
the metal to its soft malleable state. If you continue to heat the
metal past first red, the grains begin to grow (grain growth) up to
the melting point.
A good example where grain growth (over annealing/over heating)
occurs is on claw settings. If claws have been heated excessively
during soldering they can become brittle. The problem become very
clear when the setter bends the claws over the stone. The claw/s may
crack.
Reticulation is a fantastic process, but it does reduce the working
properties of the metal.
I hope this helps.
Graham Farr
Sydney, Australia.
Can anyone explain why this happens: I follow all the steps to
bring up the fine silver, control the torch flame so it should flow
as I want it to, and sometimes get wonderful results, and other
times…on silver from the same stock…get an ugly pebbled effect
or very poor texture. I can’t figure it out.
Dee
Can anyone explain why this happens: I follow all the steps to bring up the fine silver, control the torch flame so it should flow as I want it to, and sometimes get wonderful results, and other times...on silver from the same stock...get an ugly pebbled effect
Dee - This happens to me when the piece gets too hot. I think that
over heating “re-combinines” the fine silver and 80/20 layers so that
they are no longer distinct and therefore do not reticulate.
Doe this sound right?
Debby Hoffmaster
Is it possible to reticulate metals other than silver, for instance
copper or brass? If so, how?
Linda
Is it possible to reticulate metals other than silver, for instance copper or brass? If so, how?
Linda: I haven’t “reticulated” copper or brass but I have heat
textured a lot of it - brass in particular will develop some
wonderful textures when heated almost to the melting point, but be
forewarned it takes a long time and the split second between
developing texture and melting is just that - a very split second -
so you have to be prepared to move that torch quickly. I generally do
this procedure outside (I have my studio in my home) because it does
create a fair amount of fumes. I find, for my purposes, the brass
will develop nicer textures than the copper. I’ve used mine for
making pendants. Also I use acetylene/air and that doesn’t produce
just the best reticulation in silver - you don’t have quite the
control you do with oxy/propane or oxy/acetylene.
NuGold, and nickel silver can be reticulated. A fire coat is not
needed. Simply heat as you would the silver that has already been
depletion gilded. The pattern will be different than what you get
with the silver but interesting. These metals are cheap. Enjoy
playing with them. I seem to recall that the nickel silver with make
a grid pattern.
Marilyn Smith
Hi Linda, just confirming what Bericho had to say about using brass
as a medium for reticulation. One step further is to cast from the
reticulated brass into silver and gold. The reticulated brass gives
much deeper and more interesting patterning than reticulated silver
and gold. One loses very little detail in the casting and the end
result is quite convincing. Kind regards, Rex in Oz
Hi, I’ve just joined, so I’ve missed the beginning of this thread. Can
brass be reticulated? If yes, would someone PLEASE e-mail me off
line with
thank you,
Wm.
mechanamorphic@earthlink.coim
I just tried to reticulate nickel silver and failed miserably.
Exactly what do you do to get it to work?
I used 22 gauge metal, in a 2 inch square on a heated charcoal block
with a flame just like what works on 80/20 silver. It turned
black, crumbled off, no ridges at all.
While we are at it - what is the procedure for brass as well?
Thanks
Judy Hoch, G.G.
@Judy_Hoch