I have a custom wedding ring I am working on that will be cast in
silver in the next couple of days. I am setting a 2 ct stone in a
gold head. Can this head be cast in place and not be ruined. I
haven’t had much luck soldering gold to silver. I have also been away
from the bench for about 10 years so I am a little rusty. The design
is beautiful so I want this to turn out.
Please help if anyone can answer my questions. Thank you…Yolanda
Try using the silver paste solder flux instead of the gold flux
Solder or laser it in …from the back.
You need to find someone thatv has cast your stone into silver
before you try it, otherwise it could be an expensive exercise for
you. If the client designed the ring, you need to be sure you can
make it. soldering gold to silver is no problem assuming you have the
right solder to use for this project.
As always run a trial first with some of the same metal to be sure
it will do what you want it to.
Making something utside of your normal skill set is always a time
consuming process.
I use silver solder to solder gold to silver, if you are careful you
can fuse the two metals together without solder, especially rose
gold with its higher melting point
Hamish
Yolanda - soldering gold to silver is no big deal - if you have 18K
or higher gold. Lower alloys often “melt” into the silver. (Jim
Binnion can explain why) If you have to do 14k - and don’t do
anything lower - I’d proceed this way:
Prep your ring - mechanically locate the correct position for the
head. If it is a peg, drill the hole, if a bezel, create tiny bites
with a graver either inside or outside the bezel location, depending
on cleanup possibilities. If a basket, do them outside, they would
show inside because you can’t clean them up. At least in some way
assure that the position for the head is mechanically set - it is too
easy when out of practice to accidently move the head while heating
the joint.
Clean and prep the head and “tin” it with easy solder - 14k, in a
couple of places, but not necessarily covering the join location.
Heat the fluxed ring in a third hand or some stable prop with your
left hand on the torch. With your prepped head, protected with
alcohol and boric acid mixture, in your right hand, bring it to the
ring while maintaining heat on the ring. Gently warm the head while
bringing it to the ring. Then position the head on the ring and let
the heat of the ring heat the head and in the process pull the two
together. (Use TINY bits of solder)
Or take it to a local goldsmith to do the joint. Or find someone
with a fusion welder and it’s no big deal.
Judy Hoch
It has been my experience that fusing gold to silver takes practice
and frequent repetition. If not done exactly right, it yields a very
expensive silver alloy, as the silver melts before the (high karat)
gold and runs all over/alloys with the gold. Low karat gold won’t
contrast enough with silver to beworth even trying, IMO.
In the past, I always used silver solder to attach silver and gold,
but now… Well, there’s no one size fits all answer.
Noel