Jewellery Making Supplies Blog

 Most types of jewellery require at least one movable joint, therefore it is a vital part of a piece and should be considered during the designing stages. You need to think about the type of movement you require, specific to the design.

Types of Joining Links 

•  Rivets: A rivet has the ability to hold pieces together without solder. You need to push your small piece of wire through similar holes in two or three separate pieces.
• Screws: A special “tap and die” set, designed for jewellers, allows small wire and tubes to be used to make screws that are in proportion of the piece. The size of the wire you are going to tap should be larger than the inside diameter of the tube, but smaller than the outside.
• Hooks: A hook can be used to fasten a chain or necklace or even to hang additional pieces from which prevents these pieces unhooking themselves when being worn. This type of joining method enables the piece to be more versatile, for example you might want to add a pendant to a simple chain but on some occasions just have the chain on its own.
• Hinges: Used to join two pieces which can then be moved without losing the integral line. On each edge, alternate your pieces of tube and solder them. Ensure wire passes through all the tube sections.

Joining Tips

1. Practice: When you are making joining links for your new design, we would recommend making a couple of mock-ups first. These can be made using paper, card, modelling clay etc. You should choose a material that mirrors the behaviour of the metal you intend to use.
2. Experiment: The most common joining links are having holes and jump rings. Try and make your piece stand out from the rest with an innovative joining method!
3. Strong Links: You need to ensure that the wire you are going to use for a jump ring is strong enough for your piece. The circle will distort if this is too light for the weight of the chain/necklace.
4. Solder your jump rings: To make your jump rings look neater, you might want to solder them. You will only need a small amount of solder, as long as you ensure the join is really tight. Large pieces of solder might form a lump, which will need to be filed down.

THE JEWELLERY GUIDE

We’ve just launched the 32-page Jewellery Guide for those of you who are going back to work, starting work or just looking for new pieces to buy for your workshop!!  It contains the essential products to every jewellery maker’s workshop: machinery, clay, starter kits, books, chains and bullion are amongst the many products you will find in this useful catalogue.  Our Top 20 Essentials at discounted prices -UP TO 25% OFF – will most likely catch your eye too! It’s sure you’ll find something you love or need for you next piece!!

and the best part…COOKSON TECHNICAL INFORMATION BOOKLET

What makes this guide even better is the booklet inside, which you can download here or order for FREE here (where you get the whole mini catalogue for a change). The booklet includes useful data sheets and answers frequently asked question on various techniques like soldering and polishing. It provides you with the best hints &tips you’ll want to know before starting to make an art piece.

We’ve been in the jewellery industry for quite a while and now you can benefit from Cooksongold’s resourcefulness even further by login onto http://www.cooksongold.com/technical/. Here you’ll find the jargon used in the trade explained, even more data sheets and instant conversion calculations. Our knowledge base is easily accessible: you can search specific words and you  can almost instantly view “Hot topics”, “Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions” or “Latest articles” .

If you have a question that hasn’t been answered already (or to which you simply cannot find the answer) you can always opt for “ask a question” and you’ll quickly receive a personal response!

So what do you think of it? Have you used it already? If so, is there anything else you would’ve wanted to see in it?

If you’d like to make a comment about this article, or post a question please click here

Making jewellery doesn’t require a large space or big pieces of equipment or even furniture. A selection of key workshop pieces combined with basic hand tools provides everything for the first workshop. Cooksongold.com provides a full range of jewellery tools - everything from basic hand tools, pre-packed tool kits, consumables, larger machinery right through to the professional jewellers bench.

Your first workshop
Often the beginner or student will start making jewellery on ‘normal’ desk, worktop or even kitchen table!  Adapting the table can be easily be achieved by clamping a G clamp bench vice or anvil.  The jewellers peg/pin can then be held in place securely giving a simple, yet sturdy place to work.

Work Benches - Click here

The peg is perhaps the most vital part of any setup allowing the jeweller to work quickly and efficiently. This wedge or triangle of wood supports the piece, holding it in a notch or v shape insert. This holds the piece rigid, allowing the jeweller to saw, cut, & file. 

If adapting an existing desk, the desk should be elevated, so that the working area is at mid chest level when the jeweller is sat upright, thus allowing maximum control of your tools and metals.

Let there be light and ventilation

Although normal desks can be adapted, two factors must be in place when setting up your ‘bench’ – light and ventilation. The work area needs to well ventilated to ensure a safe working environment combined with good bright and direct lighting. Natural light can be complemented by adjustable lamps ensuring that no shadow falls over your piece from the jeweller or the equipment.

Workshop lighting - Click here

The professional jeweller’s bench

The traditional jeweller’s bench is a purposed designed and provides the perfect working area for any project. Often mistakenly seen as expensive luxury, a good bench will last you a lifetime and most importantly will help in improving your technique. Benches are higher than a normal desk (mid chest level if the jeweller is sitting uptight) ensuring that the jeweller does not stoop to work. Most benches have the semi circle cut out ensuring that you can sit close to the to the work, and with the aid of a bench skin collects scrap and protect the jeweller from hot or sharp objects.

Organising jewellery tools  

Keeping a workshop tidy, and the tools organised will help the jeweller when working, creating an efficient working environment. Both tools & materials should ideally be kept close to the bench, with the aim of trying to keep all materials within arms reach. Practically many of the basic jewellers tools will be actually left on the bench – Pliers, files, cutters, tweezers are used so often that they can be left on the work top for immediate access. 

As a large part of jewellery making involves heat often a section of the bench will be dedicated to the equipment needed for soldering. Often the soldering area will be based around the placement of a torch, with the soldering block placed alongside a borax cone and dish.

For other materials such as jewellery findings, settings, and metal, storage containers should be used. These ideally have sliding draws to allow you to split different carats, sizes or types of findings.

Storage - Click here

Once the workshop is established all that remains to be added is the essential basic selection of popular jewellery tools such as files, saw & saw blades, emery & polishing sticks, pliers, cutters, verneirs along with forming tools and heating/soldering equipment.

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Satisfactory soldered joints in precious metal articles must be strong yet unobtrusive. The basic principles of soldering practice must be applied to ensure strong consistent joints along with the following points:

(i) The design must lend itself to soldering.

(ii) The parts to be soldered must fit closely and accurately.

(iii) The correct solder and flux must be used.

Soldering

Gas and compressed air mixtures are generally the most satisfactory for torch soldering. Fine adjustment of flame size and temperature are possible.The flame should be kept constantly on the move over the whole joint area or over as wide an area as can be conveniently joined in a single application of solder.

Joint Preparation
The joint areas must be free form dirt and grease and ideally cleaned with a file or emery paper to ensure the solder will wet the parent metal. Flux should be applied to the joint area and solder prior to heating. Fluxes promote wetting of the workpiece by the molten solder. They do this by removing any oxide films present on both the parent metal and solder and prevent further formation of oxides during heating.The flux must be completely fluid and active before solder liquidation and should remain so until after the solder solidification. If the size of the joint or the duration of heating is large further flux additions may be made during the process. It must be noted that warming of the workpiece may be required to ensure full retention of the flux paste over the whole joint area. The torch should initially be held some distance from the workpiece so that the flame heats the work generally. If components of different size are being joined the torch should predominantly heat the heavier item.

Techniques

There are two general techniques used to apply solid solder: 

(i) Preplacement; small pieces of solder are placed at the joint seam prior to heating. Heat is then applied until the solder flows into the joint.
(ii) Feeding; the fluxed joint is heated to temperature and tip of the solder wire is fed into the joint and should melt on contact.

Using both these techniques the part of the joint to which the molten solder is required should be heated more strongly than the remainder ensuring the solder will flow towards the hottest section. Continued flame impingement on the molten solder may result in the vaporisation of lower melting point constituents, higher temperatures may then be required to complete the joint. The time and temperature to complete a joint must be kept to a minimum. 

Solder Strip, Paste, Syringe and Wire

Gold and silver flux residues may normally be removed by soaking in hot water. Any further residues that persist may then be removed by brushing. In difficult cases the workpiece should be immersed in 5 – 10% sulphuric acid solution for 2 – 5 minutes, rinsed in hot water and brushed again.  For large scale soldering a small furnace may be used to provide sufficient uniform heat to the workpiece. For mass production batch or conveyer type furnaces may be used. However, the quantities of components to be soldered must be large enough to justify the relatively high capital expenditure and development of a method for each particular soldering operation.

All workpieces can be successfully finished by the standard practices and processes currently available. It must be noted that powdered borax does not always meet the requirements for all applications where the extensive range of solders now available may be used.

Which Solder to use – Gold, Silver and (particularly) Platinum
Solders are typically classified according to their melting points – “easy”, “medium” and “hard” therefore refers to the ease of melting the solder. Hence an “easy” solder melts before a “hard” one and this can be used where a sequence of joints are to be made. Usually a solder must conform to the same hallmarking rules as the metal being joined – for example, a 9ct solder must contain at least 371⁄2% gold. However, there are some concessions, which are: – Platinum solders must contain at least 95% precious metals by weight, chosen from silver, gold, platinum, palladium, iridium and osmium. There is no minimum platinum content specified. – Solders for white golds may be Hallmarked on concession down to 50% gold content. – 22ct solder must contain at least 80% gold.