Soldering 14k white gold

hello, I have a ring to make in 14k wg, can I use hard silver solder
for this? If the color is close it won’t matter to the customer. My
work is primarily silver /copper so I don’t have resourses for gold.
Can i use the silver solder in a pinch?

thanks,
Kent

I have a ring to make in 14k wg, can I use hard silver solder for
this? 

No.

If the color is close it won't matter to the customer. 

It won’t be close.

My work is primarily silver /copper so I don't have resourses for
gold. 

http://www.riogrande.com/default.aspx

Can i use the silver solder in a pinch? 

No. Might as well use lead solder.

The answer is maybe. When platinum was introduced, there was no
platinum solders, so silver solder was used without any problems.
But, parts must fit perfectly. Joints must be watertight. If you
value your time, it will be less expensive to use gold solder.

If joint is not perfect, color is not the only problem. Such joint
becomes proverbial weak link, because silver solder is mechanically
inferior to gold, and would not survive long.

Leonid Surpin

Can i use the silver solder in a pinch? 

No.

Well OK, you can, but it’s just not a good idea. Trust me on this.
Have fun and make lots of jewelry.

Jo Haemer
www.timothywgreen.com

I have a ring to make in 14k wg, can I use hard silver solder for
this? If the color is close it won't matter to the customer. My
work is primarily silver /copper so I don't have resourses for
gold. Can i use the silver solder in a pinch? 

That doesn’t seem right to me. I’ve done it on one of my own rings,
and it worked fine and you’d never know, but I would never do so on
a customer’s ring. You might not normally work in gold, but you’re
obviously having to buy 14K white gold to make the ring in the first
place, so why not just buy a small amount of white gold solder to do
the job? I mainly work in silver too, but I’ve bought platinum,
white gold, and yellow gold solders whenever I’ve had to make a piece
in something other than silver, or do a repair (I used the platinum
solder to solder a seam in a palladium ring I made - as that’s what
the supplier recommends for their 950 palladium). It doesn’t cost
much extra, and then you still have the solder for the next time
you’re working in white gold.

Helen
UK

Can i use the silver solder in a pinch? 

Silver solder is a poor match for white golds. The color is wrong,
the strength may not be as good (though It’s probably OK), and the
joint will tarnish over time. Also, silver solder is softer than the
white gold, so when you polish it, or even just with wear, The solder
will tend to polish out of the seam, leaving a depressed line in
addition to a color difference. All in all, it’s probably worth the
money to get some suitable white gold solder rather than going the
cheap route. If you had to make an emergency repair or something,
and silver solder is all you had, it would do the job of joining the
parts. But the work would not usually be considered up to
professional standards. Your choice. Now, if you were joining silver
to white gold, then silver solder is an acceptable solder to use.
It’s softer than white gold, but also more ductile and malleable, so
joints in dissimilar metals like this would have fewer problems with
cracking or stress from different thermal expansion rates.

Peter

Kent, I would not do it!

Is there any way that you can take a piece of the wg and fuse it
instead?

Just my opinion, but as a jeweler, I would not do it for any of my
clients. To me that is like going to a wedding and being served jello
instead of wedding cake. In a different class totally.

Angela Hampton

If joint is not perfect, color is not the only problem. Such joint
becomes proverbial weak link, because silver solder is
mechanically inferior to gold, and would not survive long. 

Not to mention what happens to your rhodium plating solution with
the introduction of sterling.

Hello Kent,

I can’t really advice you to take Silver Solder for white Gold ring,
Silver will tarnish and your seams will always show up, besides
probably not strong enough.

Sorry better invest in some white Gold solder.

Have a great day!
Sigi

The biggest problem you’d face is damage to your reputation. Not
because of some purist’s point of view, but because the customer will
see it ain’t right.