Soldering Argentium Sterling Jump Rings

Hi,

I tried yesterday to solder some jump rings I made out of 14 gauge
dead soft Argentium wire onto a piece. Each time when the metal of
the ring got hot to temperature it would suddenly burst in half.
This happened 4 times. On the fourth attempt, I tempered the ring by
first heating it up, quenching, and repeated. This had no effect as
it too split when it reached soldering temp. And I was using medium
solder. I had to make the ring out of half sterling wire which
worked just fine but doesn’t look near as good. Anyone have any
ideas?

Thanks.
Rockey

If you make a lot of jump rings (and other metal projects) you might
want to look into a Pulse Arc Welder. They do many things well, but
especially production of jump rings and chains.

Hi, I saw this happen when a student, at the Argentium Sterling
workshop that I taught at Metalwerx, was soldering a post onto an
earring. The problem was that the self-locking tweezers that were
being used to hold the wire had too strong a tension/grip, and when
the Argentium Sterling got hot, the tweezers broke the wire. The
solution in that case was to use a pair of tweezers that did not
squeeze so tightly. Let us know if this solves the problem!

Best wishes,

Cynthia Eid