Hi All,
Although I feel that I’m an accomplished jewelry artist, I have (so
far) avoided soldering most of my pieces. Fine silver is my
forte…mainly fusing rings into chains, and using the metal in
cases where I need to avoid any firescale. I still use some
sterling, but mostly for forging and texturing.
I’ve had limited experience with soldering using paste solder
recently, but the results were mixed…sometimes it worked and
sometimes it didn’t. I know that part of the problem is that the
paste solder might be too old…but I still had trouble using tiny
snippetts of wire solder. As far as torches are concerned, I have
been using a jumbo butane torch. Perhaps that isn’t hot enough? It
should be hot enough according to “Soldering Made Simple” by Joe
Silvera. Maybe there is way too much heat-sinking going on.
I really want to get this down…other jewelry artists solder as if
they were born soldering. I’m so tired of the frustration, I’m ready
to ask for a Little Torch System for my 60th B’day if that would
help. My sales at a local gallery are starting to pick up, and I
want to give my customers something new and fresh…soldering would
give me more design freedom…including stone setting.
Do you guys recommend getting a hotter torch, like the micro torch
propane and air system? (and I KNOW I need fresh paste
solder…that’s a no-brainer…even for me!).
Thanks!
Betsy