[Seek] Borrow a good silver soldering DVD?

All,

I have been having the absolute worst time finding anyone I can
travel to for training in silversmithing, and I live in the North
Idaho handle.

Does anyone have any DVD’s in soldering sterling silver that they
could lend me for a few weeks?

Thanks,
Andrew Jonathan Fine

Andrew

Hopefully there will be a DVD for that.

I did go to youtube.com and found lots of videos on soldering
silver,

I typed

How to solder silver.

Hope that helps.

David Geller
www.jewelerprofit.com

Andrew,

SmartFlix (the Netflix of technical videos) has technical videos on
Goldsmithing and Jewelry making:

http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/1k3

They even have a “University” program where they send you three dvds
a month on a topic of your choice (goldsmithing and jewelry making
being two separate options).

I’d suggest checking out all of the Revere on Goldsmithing videos
along with anything by Tim McCraight, Harold O’Connor, Christine
Dhein, Victoria Lansford or Ronda Coryell.

You can also check out all of the benchtube videos available on
Ganoksin: Learning Center - Ganoksin Jewelry Making Community

Lastly, soldering comes from just getting in there and doing it. I’d
suggest getting an ounces of 16 gauge sterling wire and a some hard
silver solder. Bend the wire into shapes and solder the pieces
together, pickle it and then hammer it into a more three dimensional
shape, file and sand it until it looks pleasing, then polish that
and start over again. What ever you destroy play around with until
you can learn no more from and set it aside to be refined. Each
mistake is a step towards better understanding of the process.
Cleanliness and torch control are more or less what you’ll be focused
on in the beginning.

Have fun,
Scott

Hi Andrew,

I started September last year and yes soldering silver was an
nightmare in the beginning, I bought books, looked at your tube etc.

My advice skip the books and your tube, save your money and just
practise practise and practise, try to understand the process.

It has taken me a few months, what is maybe embarrassing long, but
thanks to practise I do not have any problems anymore with small or
large pieces.

A bit of advice I can give is, make sure you item is clean move your
flame to heat up the whole piece, keep moving the flame and study
the colour changes and flow of the solder.

The suggestion to look at the video of Ganoksin is great advice,
search for Skilman, I have learned more from him than any book I
ever bought

success

kind regards
peter
spain

I think the main reason people have difficulty with silver soldering
is a lack of enough heat.

Cleanliness. Do you realize that the solder itself oxidizes in room
air, or in a container made up as snippets? I pull my wire solder
between a layer of 3M Scotchbrite cleansing pad each time before I
solder. (Don’t like sheet solder, but that also needs cleaned before
use.) That oxidation is part of the problem with solder not
flowing…yes, heat also. That comes from practice to know what the
torch is doing.

Up late, my 2 cents worth tonight!
RMC

I agree with Pat that the difficulty probably is not enough heat.
You might try fusing Argentium. I think it can be easier than
soldering. Go to Youtube and watch some of the DVD clips I have
available on Argentium.

Ronda Coryell
Jewelry Studies Intl. Austin, TX

Cleanliness. Do you realize that the solder itself oxidizes in
room air, or in a container made up as snippets? 

I agree Rose. You can’t be clean enough! You can have all the heat
and technique in the world and it will fail if the solder and
materials are not super duper clean. We teach here to clean to the
point you are satisfied… then clean it again! It is TRULY time
well spent. We use snippets of solder here more than wire…but we
clean the sheet solder and cut the snippets as needed so they are
not oxidized at all.

Dan.
Dearmond Tool
http://www.dearmondtool.com