Hi - I would like to solder some little 18k gold bits onto a piece of
sterling silver. I’ve soldered gold, and I’ve soldered silver, but I’ve
never done the two together. The gold bits are tiny little snippets,
about 4mm lengths of 24g square wire (more or less). Should I use gold
solder, silver solder, should I try fusing them instead? As always, any
help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
kara
(in San Francisco where we’re going straight from the rainy season into the fog
season - I only vaguely remember a large round bright object that used to
occupy the daytime sky)
Hi Kara,
I always solder the gold onto the silver using silver solder, either med.
or easy. Place the gold onto the silver with little snippets of solder
under or around the gold. hold the torch under the silver and heat until
solder flows. Be careful, just past the flowing stage the gold melts and
it melts into the silver, forming an unrecognizable lump. Jan http://www.designjewelry.com - in sunny (for once) Oregon.
Hi Kara
When I make solder of gold parts on silver or opposite. When I have to
choose the solder, I always think, if I do a mess, wich one will be easier
to file, silver on the gold parts or gold on silver parts considering the
structure of my work. To do it, I melt a small and proportional quantity
of solder under the small pieces and lay them on the larger part. Then I
heat under and over until it is solder. Heat the flux slowly until it is
dry because the small parts will be dancing around and out of their
places. Fusing is hard to do on large surfaces. Bye Vincent Guy Audette
I`m talking from Brazil, were is winter and the sun shines all the time.
To solder small parts of gold on a silver piece you must use silver
solder and follow this steps: 1- clean all parts on a pickling solution.
2- cut the silver solder as small as you can. 3- put the flux on the
soldering side of the gold parts and dry it with a solf flame. 4- put
the solder(just enough) over the dry flux on the gold parts and melt it.
5- put flux on the silver piece and place the gold parts exactly were it
must be soldered then proceed with the soldering using an large and soft
flame.
one of the best ways to start a really spirited discussion
among jewellers is to innocently ask whether one should use silver solder
or white gold solder or yellow gold solder to solder yellow gold to silver
or white gold or vice versa.
At the risk of drawing a whole heap of contradictory posts down on my
head, I’d suggest that you use a medium to hard silver solder, depending
on how much more soldering you will be doing after you’ve attached your
18ct bits.