How to solder silver ?
It is essential to know how to solder silver to make elaborate jewels.
However, in the majority of cases, when we talk about silver solder, it is an abuse of language : in reality we're doing a silver brazing.
In jewelry, we assemble silver coins by wetting them with silver solder. This silver solder will, by capillarity, run along the gap between the two parts and hold them together while cooling.
We invite you to discover this process in photos, by the work of a designer making silver jewelry.
Free Bonus : Download our complete guide to silver jewelry (fr).
You'll discover everything you need to know to shop online or in store.
Material needed to solder silver
To solder silver, it takes two pieces in pure silver (925 or 950) and silver solder. In this picture, we are soldering meshes of a silver milanese mesh bracelet you can find here in our boutique.
It's also necessary to use a liquid facilitating the solder, it cleans the areas of solder and avoids the oxidation of the latter, we generally use the Borax.
Silver solder is an alloy of silver and copper that has a lower melting temperature than the pure silver we are trying to solder. It's less pure silver than the sterling silver we work.
Since silver has a higher melting temperature than copper, the melting temperature of the alloy is lower as its copper content is higher. Thus, the melting temperature of the silver 950 is greater than that of the silver 925 which itself is greater than that of the silver solder.
To solder in good conditions, you'll also need a refractory brick supporting the heat of the torch. A simple kitchen torch can suffice if you want to solder occasionally. Also plan tweezers for handling the solder.
How to solder silver ?
In the photos below we see the two solid silver coins that will be used for the solder.
On the second picture, we can see the jeweler deposit small pieces of solder near the join of the pieces. It then deposits a liquid which, while heating, will clean the parts in contact and avoid the oxidation of the solder.
We can see on this photo the heating of the two pieces with the blowtorch. On the last picture we can see the brazed area at the join of the pieces.
Once the solder is finished, we plunge the soldered part into a mixture of water and weakly concentrated sulfuric acid in order to loosen the solder. This eliminates traces of oxides formed during the solder of the parts.
Learn silver soldering to make jewelry.
Soldering silver coins is not difficult. However, this requires practice to achieve the desired results, especially when we want to make jewelry. The work is then particularly fine.
To begin, it is advisable to start with rather large silver coins. Soldering silver wire, or fine pieces, is more delicate since they will melt faster than massive pieces.
Soldering small pieces of silver requires more fingering and torch control. In addition, start by soldering pieces of equivalent size. It also makes it easier. When you begin to solder parts of very different sizes and masses, prepare your assembly and heat only the massive part.
Once it's hot, it will quickly heat up the other room and the solder will melt on its own and run along the gap between the two rooms.
If you don't follow this process, you risk melting the solder without the pure silver piece is at the temperature suitable for good adhesion of the solder. In addition, you may melt the small silver piece before you can do your solder.
Discover on video (fr) how to solder silver :
Making jewelry requires the work of silver in the form of cutting, shaping, hammering, polishing and brushing. However, the solder operation remains the most important to give free rein to the creation and integration of stones to silver jewelry.
Free Bonus : Download our complete guide to silver jewelry (fr).
You'll discover everything you need to know to shop online or in store.
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