To quench or not to quench, that is the question

Jewelry Discussion
81

Helen, The only way to avoid building up a scrap pile is to avoid
making jewelry. Keep at it.

Tom Arnold

82 
When I am to solder a large, heavy bezel, I position it on a flat
solder brick with T Pins, which are used in sewing. They stick into
the soft brick at strategic spots to hold the join together, put
solder on the inside of the bezel, well fluxed, and with a flame
that won't burn through the metal = watch to see the bright silver
line as the solder flows. This is where you should practice using
different degrees of flame - I have my students take scrap and test
out the different sizes of flame when soldering - soon you will
know that it doesn't take a blow torch to solder.

I only have a little butane torch at present and was not using a
fierce flame. To be honest, it is no longer capable of producing a
fierce flame. It’s essentially a creme brulee torch and I have been
using it day in day out for hours at a time, so it’s no wonder it’s
on its way out!!! I’m buying an oxy/prop set-up next week so I’ll
have a whole new range of flames to get used to.

I’ll be shopping for some major bits of equipment in the next few
weeks, so if anyone has ideas of “must have” pieces of equipment,
please let me know. On my list is the decent torch, rolling mill,
pendant drill with flex shaft, Gerry’s gravers, repousse punches,
crucible, tongs, ingot mold, decent hammers (mine are cheap and one
has a loose head!), ultrasonic cleaner, crock pot for pickle, stone
setting burrs, stakes, decent files and some sort of magnifying
light.

Helen
UK

83

Hi Pam,

Fortunately, we have Orchid to help make sense of what has happened
so the learning curve is so-o much better.

Thanks for your comments. I do tend to want to learn to run before I
can crawl. I get too frustrated by taking lots of time over the
beginner stuff so I do push myself so I suppose it’s no surprise
that I have lots of disasters. Some will say that taking more time
will pay dividends in the long run but this is just the way I learn.
If I am convinced that I can do something, I get there in the end and
I am having loads of help from all you people on Orchid so yes, as
you say “Thanks Orchid!”

Helen
UK