I remember when you were just starting out…:-)…! I just had a look at your site–you sure have come a long way!
There are many different ways to use the powdered solder, depending on the ‘mission’.… For areas of intricate fillings:
Dip a small piece of cotton in water (holding it with a tweezers) and dab it all over the back side of the part to be soldered.
Hold up the piece in the air and blow hard on it, so excess water blows off.
Hold it over the container of powdered solder + powdered borax, pick up a bunch with index finger and thumb, and ‘sprinkle’ exactly where needed by rubbing the tips of the thumb and index finger back and forth against each other. Hard to explain–easy when you see it…
Heat the whole piece gently with a large bushy flame.
Yes the nice ladies company is , myuniquesolitions. What I like about her powdered solders is the lack of flux in the powder. Yes I can work with the solders that have flux incorporated into it whether paste or powder. What I hate about that mix is with the powdered version I encountered a mushrooming effect as the mix warmed up before it flowed. That happened with minute amounts and larger amounts. I tried moistening more, and alternatively drying it out first. The same problem occurs. Its more that the bubbling of flux you get when you apply the two separately. Having the two separate FOR ME was a way to control the variable of expansion caused be the flux boiling away. As to my using powdered solder it depends on the job I’m working on. I rarely use it other than filigree. I use sheet I cut to the size needed. I use wire both for touch feed soldering and melted for pick soldering. The solder used is also as variable as to how I set up to solder. I may use a charcoal block, or solderite board. It could be a tripod with fine or large wire screen. I use titanium clips and old stainless steel dinner knives found at garage sales to hold work. I could go further with heat barrier methods, but you get the idea. It depends on the piece you are working with that the individual working will use. For me personally paste solders have no space in my work room.
I also don’t have a problem with solder showing after I’ve made the piece. I learned a slick trick on how to keep the amount of powder clinging to the piece. Excess is collected to be used again since it is not contaminated with any other substance. If by chance I see solder has made it to where it shows, that is where my flex shaft goes to work.
Sadly now I do few pieces of anything. After shattering my right wrist and forearm, I find it still difficult to work more that an hour a day. I can do the work, but the hand cramps up and quits working. So I no longer do stage demonstrations of jewelry and metal working with the Utah Shakespeare Festival. It was a decade of fun working with them.
OK, I’m sorry to bring up a sore subject, but I have to know what you do not like about using bezel rockers. That is what I use to set all of my bezels and is how I learned. I am not trained by an academy, but I have taken classes at a local shop. If there is a better way, I would really like to learn it. Thanks so much for sharing all of your knowledge.
Bernie- In 49 years of making jewelry I have never ever seen a professional stone setter use a bezel rocker or burnisher to set stones in a bezel. If I walked into a professional shop and started to set a stone with a bezel rocker and burnisher I’d be handed a cardboard box for my tools and shown the door.
It is considered by pros as a crude, inefficient, and dangerous way to bezel set stones. I can’t imagine trying to push a bezel over the pointy bit of a marquis, pear, or square shaped stone. Those sharp corners love to snap off at the drop of a hat. When that happens one has to buy the broken stone from the client and then buy another one to replace it. I hate buying stones I don’t get to wear or sell. And I have to spend my valuable time setting a stone twice. I’d rather be drinking a beer instead of working late:-)
You simply cannot control the movement of the bezel metal nearly as well as you can with a setting punch and hammer. I use a well balanced chasing hammer and a home made setting punch that I make from key stock.
I move the metal down so uniformly and smoothly with a punch and hammer that when I am done I very rarely ever have to clean up my work. I can just polish it and be done.
I hope I’m not sounding snarky or evangelical, because I really am the world’s laziest jeweler. I HATE filing and cleaning things up. It takes up precious time I could be spending designing and making more stuff. And when one has to file, emery or rubber wheel things up before polishing it looks “shop worn” and not as crisp as I like.
-Jo Haemer www.timothywgreen.com
Thank you for your reply Jo. That makes sense. I do use a hammer and setting punch on anything thicker than bezel wire, but I sure hope I can get near as good as you someday. Can’t say I have much control over that setting punch yet. But, I still consider every piece I do as practice.
I think you all may be talking about a couple different types of bezels. Faceted stones and smaller cabochons set in heavy bezels are no place to use a bezel rocker. This is were I would use the hammer and punch method (although, my hammer and punch is a GRS handpiece with a polished brass punch).
However, larger cabochons set in thin-walled bezels, typically fine silver, are the perfect place to use a bezel rocker followed by a burnisher. The bezel is thin enough that the burnisher will finish it nicely and there’s no need to follow with anything but a buff/polish.
I’m absolutely kicking myself right now. I was just at Michael David Sturlin’s retreat for a week and never once did I ask to see his setting tools. I would have loved to see a professional set a stone using the tools and methods that you just described. What a missed opportunity.
Dear All,
Hi… this is Prakash V Pai from India…
We at our company cast Platinum (using 95PT +%Cobalt).
But soldering is an issue for us. I have tried different methods, Permutation & Combinations to get good results. But in the end there is always a difference color shade of the solder & the cast ring.
Can someone please guide me as to what type of Solder I should get in order to avoid getting different shade of this Platinum alloy??
Secondly is there any solder paste which I can formulate for this PT+Cobalt alloy which I am using.
I would appreciate if someone can guide me to making a detailed & methodical process of making solder paste in house…
awaiting for your repl,
Warm regards,
Prakash V Pai
INDIA.
Thank you so much, everyone, for your replies. I’m going to try out the silver soldering paste that we sell and then I’m going to write a blog post on my results. I’m anxious to try it for myself and see how it does, and I’m curious to see if my mind will change since I first tried it. I’ll post a link if anyone’s curious to read it after I’m finished.
Many pieces that are furnace soldered are tack welded together. We used paste solder “dispensers” that produce a fixed amount of paste solder every time you press the foot pedal. Paste solder stays where you put it as the pieces go through the furnace.
An ancient, elderly goldsmith I knew way back when would always have an apprentice hand-hold the wooden cone topped with lacquer holding the ring when he set stones with hammer and punch. The cone would be held against the v-cut in the bench pin. He did this to soften the blows–so there would be a bit of flexibility. How do you hold the piece when you are hammer-punching?
I respectfully disagree about using a bezel rocker and burnisher even on cabs with thin walled bezels.
If I walked into a professional trade shop and started to use a bezel rocker and a burnisher to set a stone even in a fine silver bezel I would be handed a cardboard box for my tools and immediately shown the door. In my 49 years at the bench I have never ever seen a pro stone setter use one.
It is nearly impossible to get pointy bits like the tip of a pear shaped stone or corners perfect with out using setting punch and hammer. I always start at the corners first. I get them dialed in before I start on the softer curved or straight areas. If one starts on the sides and then moves the metal towards the corners there will often be a funky looking pucker there. l can hammer a fine walled bezel with enough control that I only have to use a buff afterwards. the secret is to use very soft blows with the hammer on the punch and have the punch mirror polished with smoothed slightly beveled edges. I also can control how far down I want the bezel to be on the stone as I go. When I bezel set I take the metal down 80%. At that point I take a polished graver and do a 45 degree bright cut on the inside edge of the bezel. Then I hammer it the rest of the way down and when finished have a nice bright shiny edge where the metal meets the stone. Below see picks of both thin and thick walled bezels on soft stones. The bright cut edge show better on the turquoise earrings.
Now all that said I should confess that I was a liturgical silversmith for a few years so I am happiest when I have a hammer in my hands.
Have fun and make lots of jewelry.
I have been a quiet fan of your work for sometime now and appreciate the knowledge and experience that you often bring to these discussions, but I’m a bit disappointed by your reply. You went from respectfully disagreeing to suggesting that I’m not a professional stone setter and should be fired for using an alternative method in about two sentences. That’s a touch dramatic for an open forum where people come to learn and share their ideas.
In the images you provided, I also would use the hammer and punch method, no argument there. However, as my grandfather taught my father and my father taught me, if I were setting a larger cabochon using 28 or 30 gauge fine silver bezel wire, I would continue to use the bezel rocker and burnisher. And yes, I would also use them to set the bezel over the points of the stone as well. It takes a little filing, but with practice and patience, I can achieve crisp, clean edges and a smooth bezel. Bezel wire this thin is difficult to polish and I find that the rocker and burnisher require the least amount of clean-up. This is a technique that has been practiced by silversmiths in the Southwest for a minute or two now.
We are artists, we have passion and as a result will disagree passionately. This is also an ancient craft with techniques that are as varied as the individuals that use them. For most areas there are at least 9 ways to do something, and they are all right. If we can keep the discussion to the pros/cons of a technique rather than the professionalism or personality of the individual we will have much more fruitful and wholesome conversations which encourage further sharing from which we will all learn something.
Now, if you all will excuse me I must get off my cardboard soapbox and use it to pack my bezel rocker and burnisher and then inform my employer that I’m not as qualified as advertised.
I did not in any way mean to imply that you are not a professional. Just that the pros who taught me would not use the same technique you do. I sincerely apologize if I upset you. It seems that you learned southwest style jewelry making form the old timers you were around. I was taught by old European dudes who learned before WWII. Different parts of the world and different styles and techniques.
I also included a photo of thin walled bezels on large opals. The necklace opal is about about an inch and a half or more long.
