.... I'm using 22g dead soft Argentium wire that I semi-work-harden
by pulling it through my fingers a few times before bending it into
ear wire shapes. This doesn't work as well as it might with
traditional sterling since the Argentium doesn't work harden nearly
as easily.
Hello Zen,
Insofar as “Tumbling french ear wires” I’d say why bother? I make my
French ear wires out of .75 mm Argentium Sterling wire and have no
problem with hardness because I twist the wire to work harden it
before I shape the shepherd’s hook. You get hardened wire with out
deformation.
What I do is start with a piece of wire 6 cm long. I make a Sharpie
mark on the wire 2.5 cm from one end. Chuck the wire into a pinvice
so the 2.5 cm is inside the body of the pinvice. Chuck the other end
of the wire into a second pinvice. Twist one pinvice so you’re
twisting --and work hardening-- 3.5 cm of the wire. Keep twisting
until you can feel wire getting noticeably stiff. I find it takes
something like 12 or 15 1/2 turns of the wire. The other 2.5 cm of
the wire is left soft for wire-wrapping around the jump ring on the
earring.
Take the wire out of the pinvices, attach it to your earring using
the soft 2.5 cm of wire (the wire-wrapping part), then shape your
shepherd’s hook in the twisted section of wire and trim off the
excess. Voila!
I find no need to tumble or anything else for further hardness. You
might want to planish the curve of the shepherd’s hook for
appearances sake but it’s mostly cosmetic.
I suppose the point of all this is that it behoves the jewelry maker
to design their stuff in such a way that they can achieve the product
they’re aiming for. And an important part of design is arranging the
individual steps of the process so that it works when it comes to
actually producing the thing. In other words by work hardening your
wire before you bend up the shepherd’s hook you achieve the ends you
desire without having to beat up your workpiece afterwards.
Admittedly the twisted wire technique isn’t exactly a mass production
method but it does work nicely and you can get pretty fast at it with
a little practice.
Presumably if you are interested in mass production you’ll consider
an getting your hands on an oven to precip harden the wire and
thereby skip the need to work harden via twisting. Of course this
assumes you are using Argentium Sterling which I understand is your
preference.
Speaking of preferences I strongly suggest you get a drawplate if you
don’t already have one. You can usually buy a cheap Indian one for
less than $30. Unless you have a physical disability of some kind it’s
really not that hard to pull most of the stock that you’ll typically
use. I find that Argentium Sterling is particularly nice to work with
when it comes to drawing and forging because it is softer when
annealed (easier to work), more ductile (less annealing) and it
doesn’t firestain (less hassle when you do need to anneal).
Cheers,
Trevor F.
in The City of Light
www.touchmetal.com
