Tiger eye heat tolerance

Jewelry Discussion
1

Does any know how heat tolerant Tiger eye is? Can I solder with it in
place using precautions? I need to enlarge a ring with a piece of
tiger eye glued in, don’t know if I can remove it successfully. (its
kind of the old “we had to destroy the village to save it” idea.)

Thanks Jim

2

I once soldered a ring with a large piece of red tigers eye in place

  • I cant remember why. The stone changed colour and went very dark,
    but retained the reflective shimmery lines. It looks fine but it’s
    not the same as it was before I heated it…

The effect of the heat on the glue might be more interesting.

Sarah

3

I have destroyed a few Tiger eye in my day. They are heat sensitive,
remove before soldering.

Wayne Carvalho

4

Try ‘Attack’ first to see if you can remove the stone before sizing
[leave the ring in the solution for 24 hrs capped]. If that is not
successful gently heat the ring and perhaps the stone will loosen.
TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

KPK

5

Won’t heating the ring to enlarge it melt the glue anyway? I would
remove it in any case if glue is an issue

Teri

6

You don’t mentin the metal, what you have to accomplish, how close
you have to get to the tigereye, but…the glue will go first, so
that will have to be replaced anyway. Tigereye cannot take a LOT of
heat, but if you’re in and out quickly you MIGHT be okay.

I vote remove it.

Wayne Emery
www.thelittlecameras.com

7

Jim, Tigereye tolerance for heat is zilch. Nada. Don’t do it. The
blue will change to a dull gray an it will crumble. I have done some
research (ongoing) into heat tolerance of various agate and jasper
and in the process of building a data base. Best to remove the stone
with acetone and/or carefully prying up the bezel.

Cheers, Don in SOFL.

8 
Does any know how heat tolerant Tiger eye is?

Gold tiger eye will turn red when heated. That’s where red tiger eye
comes from. I think temperature of 600F needs to be maintained for a
few hours to turn it red. Soldering temps would be too high for
tiger eye and I’m pretty sure it will fracture. Of course tiger eye
is agatized asbestos so I’m not really sure how it will handle heat
so I’m assuming the same as any agate.

Rick Copeland
Silversmith and Lapidary Artisan
rockymountainwonders.com

9

Is this a silver ring? If so, the glue will probably be trashed,
anyhow, when you heat the ring enough to solder anywhere on it. I’d
suggest using Attack or some other chemical to remove the stone. Or,
if others say that tigereye is heat resistant, just let the glue burn
up and then re-glue later.

M’lou

10 
Does any know how heat tolerant Tiger eye is? Can I solder with it
in place using precautions? I need to enlarge a ring with a piece
of tiger eye glued in, don't know if I can remove it successfully.
(its kind of the old "we had to destroy the village to save it"
idea.)

If it’s glued in, gentle heating will loosen it. If epoxy, the glue
tends to expand and bubble up slightly, almost lifting the stone out.
Easy in most cases. This suggests that you shouldn’t be expecting the
stone setting to remain intact even if tigereye could take heat.

If you can keep the whole thing cool enough around the stone such
that the glue is not damaged, then the tigereye will be fine too.

However, more than that gentle heating will cause tigereye to change
color. The commonly seen yellow/brown tigereye colors turn to
brownish reds. Kind of pretty, and sometimes you see heat treated red
tigereye for sale for exactly that reason. But if you don’t want that
color change, you can’t allow the tigereye to get all that hot.
Again, however, in your case, the glue and it’s lower temperature
tolerance, is likely your limiting factor.

Peter Rowe

11

If it is a silver ring I wouldn’t try that at all. If it is a gold
ring it is very risky. On the gold you MIGHT get away with it if you
gelled the stone real well or used a damp sand bowl, a heat sink and
you are really fast. I would imagine the glue will cause a lot of
problems. It will burn quickly and soot up the whole job. You might
gently heat the ring and see if you can coax the glue into letting
go… then size it. I have been known to freeze a ring & glued in
stone in an ice tray… yep, right into an ice cube and get the glue
to let go as well… It depends on the glue! Of course part of me
would like to take a tube of super glue to whoever glued the stone
to start with and see how many fingers I could glue together!!! That
IS NOT the way to make jewelry… I know, I know, its done every
day… but somewhere in the world, every day someone slams their
hand in a car door too… that doesn’t make it a good idea. :wink:

Good Luck. Dan.

DeArmond Tool