Hello Markus- Thanks for the enlightening post on stainless. I
knew that it was something like that, it’s just been awhile
since I brushed up on this. I was a kid who started out sweeping
the floor at a machine shop and I hated to sweep anyway, so I
would sneak off and read all of these really boring books that
were lying about! Cheers- Ricky Low
What solder(s) can be used to join sterling silver and stainless
steel? Thanks! Louise
Regular silver solders can be used with stainless in most cases. I’m
no expert on stainless, but I believe there are some alloys that you
can’t get anything to stick to. But here’s the trick I’ve found.
The “self-pickling” fluxes don’t work well with stainless. They
won’t keep the oxides from forming on the steel. Use the paste type
flux like “Handy Flux”. These are white pastes and come mixed in a
jar. You have to get the joint well covered with the flux before it
gets hot enough to oxidize the stainless. If the stainless does
develop a black oxide, no amount of flux will help you, you’ll need
to stop, cool the piece, clean the flux off and physically remove the
oxide, either by abraiding it off, filing it, or sand-blasting. You
need to get back to clean, fresh, metal. Then start over with the
soldering process. White gold solders will work too, but, of course,
it’s more expensive than silver solders. When I say "silver solder"
I don’t mean the stuff that’s marketed in the hardware store as such,
that’s just tin with some silver in it. I mean the sheet or wire
solders that are used in silver fabrication, like you get from the
jewelry suppliers.
David L. Huffman
I’ve used Medium Silver Solder with paste flux to join stainless
steel wires to sterling silver. I remember being told at the time
that sometimes it doesn’t work but I’ve recently seen the piece (done
21 years ago) and the wires are all still firmly in place. I think it
helps if you can anchor the stainless in the silver. In my case I
drilled holes so that the wire fit very snugly in the silver sheet
before soldering. With flat sheet you might want to file a groove
into which to fit the silver but this may be overkill.
Linda M
I have soldered quite a bit of stainless steel to both silver and
gold. I use either medium or easy silver solder and brown paste flux.
The brown or black paste flux is especially designed to silver solder
stainless steel and is usually available at your local welding supply
shop. This flux does not burn off as easy as the white paste flux and
also works well for silver… be careful not to over heat the
stainless and make sure you have a clean surface to start
with…Frank Goss
Hello, I just finished a stone setting class with Blain Lewis at The
GRS factory. Just nine students, so lots of personal help. One of the
students was a 20 year jeweler vet from Dallas TX… He works in a
very upscale store there. He told me that they had one jeweler that
did nothing but stainless steel work.
Please comment on the use of stainless, and yellow gold.
Billy
@B_Stringfellow
Was Tumbling jump rings
True stainless steel is non magnetic, it doesn't have enough iron in it to be magnetic. There are several steels available that are called 'stainless', incorrectly, that have iron in them. These will respond to a magnet.
Stainless steel is just that, stain-less. All stainless steel can be
made to rust under the right conditions. They all contain iron as
the major component of the alloy somewhere between 50-80% and a
significant amount of chromium. It is the hard, thick, transparent
chromium oxide that forms on the surface of the alloy that gives the
stain-less property.
The most common stainless steels are austenitic (see below) which
refers to the form that the iron carbon and are non-magnetic these
are the 300 series stainless steels. The stainless typically used to
make shot for tumbling is one of the 300 series.
There is also a group of stainless steels that are referred to as
martensitic (see below) that typically are somewhat magnetic they
are also much harder than austenitic stainless these are the 400
series stainless steels and are used for things like knives and
cutting tools.
Austenitic stainless steel has enough nickel and chromium to retain
austenite at atmospheric temperatures
Martensitic stainless steel contains chromium (12-14%), molybdenum
(0.2-1%), no nickel, and about 0.1-1% carbon (giving it more
hardness but making the material a bit more brittle). it is quenched
and magnetic.
austenite - a solid solution of ferric carbide or carbon in iron;
cools to form pearlite or martensite
cementite, iron carbide - the iron carbide constituent of steel and
cast iron; very hard and brittle
ferrite - a solid solution in which alpha iron is the solvent
martensite - a solid solution of carbon in alpha-iron that is formed
when steel is cooled so rapidly that the change from austenite to
pearlite is suppressed; responsible for the hardness of quenched
steel
pearlite - a lamellar mixture of cementite and ferrite formed during
the cooling of austenite; a micro-constituent of steel and cast iron
cast iron - an alloy of iron containing so much carbon that it is
brittle and so cannot be wrought but must be shaped by casting
stainless steel - steel containing chromium that makes it resistant
to corrosion
steel - an alloy of iron with small amounts of carbon; widely used
in construction; mechanical properties can be varied over a wide
range
Jim Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts
Phone (360) 756-6550
Toll Free (877) 408 7287
Fax (360) 756-2160
@James_Binnion
Member of the Better Business Bureau
The most common stainless steels are austenitic (see below) which refers to the form that the iron carbon and are non-magnetic these are the 300 series stainless steels. The stainless typically used to make shot for tumbling is one of the 300 series.
Oops this should read:
The most common stainless steels are austenitic (see below) which
refers to how the iron and carbon are aligned in the crystal lattice
and are non-magnetic these are the 300 series stainless steels. The
stainless typically used to make shot for tumbling is one of the 300
series.
Jim Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts
Phone (360) 756-6550
Toll Free (877) 408 7287
Fax (360) 756-2160
@James_Binnion
Member of the Better Business Bureau