fine silver for headpins?

[lucy81]

I've been looking at tutorials for making headpins, and alot of them state to use fine silver wire. I was wondering what the difference is between fine silver wire and sterling silver wire. Is there any difference? Is it necessary to use fine silver? Thanks!

[agent_44]

Fine silver is more pure than Sterling, a lot of people use it over sterling for headpins because you get not firescale and so there's no need to pickle after, thus a simpler process. I have also heard it said that it balls up easier than sterling.

Barabara (Solunar Silver) is our resident expert on fine silver round these parts. I expect she can tell you more.

[Di Sandland]

Lucy, I don't use fine silver for headpins. I believe its supposed to make better 'balls' tho. If anybody on here uses fine silver it will be Barbara or Nic, who specialise in precious metal clay, which is, of course, fine silver.

To be honest I would be concerned that it isn't strong enough but, hey, what do I know!

If the rest of your components are sterling tho, that's what I would stick to for your findings too.

Looks like Lucinda and me anwered at the same time LOL - great minds and all that

[kymbi]

Fine silver is purer than sterling so the wire is softer and easier to manipulate and doesn't darken when it's heated. I think that a lot of the tutorials recommend fine silver wire for making headpins as these don't need to be pickled afterwards to remove the firestain, so it cuts down on the amount of time and equipment needed for the process.

Personally, I prefer to make and use sterling silver headpins as I've found these are stronger and harder, especially for larger pendants or heavier earrings.

[mizgeorge]

Fine silver is great for headpins, especially smaller ones (0.7mm or under). It does ball up more evenly than sterling or even argentium, both of which tend to ball slightly to one side. It's also less likely to pit, which can be a problem if you make balled pins using sterling and remove them from the flame too quickly.

As said, though, it's not as strong as sterling, and the balls can break off under pressure. You also need to be more careful about working with it as it's very easy to end up with toolmarks, especially in the heavier gauges. It's also too soft to get really need turns with a pair of round nosed pliers without marking.

Lucinda and Di are spot on, the reason it's often recommended in tutorials is that it doesn't firestain, so there's no need for pickling, though I still think it needs polishing as it does tend to end up a little matte in finish.

I also use fine silver for fused rings, but only if they're either going to be woven into chains (I do loop in loop, and I know Barbara makes lots of chain styles with fused rings), or if they're going to be forged (or hammered) flat, as they aren't strong enough to hold their shape otherwise.

Welcome to the forum btw!

[Green Beetle]

Thanks for the advice - I'd been wondering about this myself.

I've also seen fine silver recommended for bezel settings - any thoughts?

[lucy81]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to go ahead and try it with the sterling silver. Fine silver headpins bend too easily! Which isn't ideal

[agent_44]

Thanks for the advice - I'd been wondering about this myself.

I've also seen fine silver recommended for bezel settings - any thoughts?

I think this is because it's much easier to maipulate around the stone, being softer than sterling. You can buy fine silver bezel strip in various heights that you just cut to length. I use it but find you have to treat it carefully or you can deform your setting (well, I can at least ) Sterlingis tougher so this is less likely to happen but it will be more effort to rub over and finish the bezel.

[mizgeorge]

I use fine silver for bezels, but only if they're relatively small, and aren't having anything terribly precious put in them! I still use sterling for the backing though.

[Solunar Silver Studio]

Sorry I've been a bit late putting my bit on this thread.. I've been trying to design a flyer...and my resident graphic designer is at Uni so I am toiling on my own!!

Anyway...I sell my jewellery as being tarnish resistant silver so I do use fine silver ball pins. I have found that that if I use .6 for beads up to about 6mm it is fine...although fwp often need .5 - which I find too soft to be comfortable using. Obviously, everything has to be wrapped snugly (with no discernable gap between coil and bead but not too tight either) as fine silver would never hold with just a loop. For larger, heavier beads I do go for heavier gauges...although I have never tried wrapping with 1.2 like Di was using on her lampies...not that I do much with heavy glass beads as yet.

I fuse all my jumprings for my chains - whatever gauge, and so far I have found that up to 6mm internal diameter in a .9 wire (after a few hours of tumbling) will hold its shape ok through everything I have put it through...and I do wear the hell out of my bracelets before I pass the design as usable. I do go down to .7 and 6mm in my finest chains but these are the ones that I twist.

Now I have some Argentium ( and found that it draws down beautifully to thinner gauges ) I will start playing round with Argentium ball pins. It was heart breaking yesterday to have to break out my pickle pot and fire it up to clean up the Argentium after annealing...and so depressing to see it going black after having exclusively used fine silver for the past 2 years!!

I have balled up Argentium before...accidently... when the offcuts from my earwire making must have got mixed in with my fine silver offcuts from my wire wrapping. (I ball up my off cuts and then fuse them onto the fine silver wire to 'bulk up' my ball pins without using too much fresh wire) I couldn't work out why these balls were not fusing to the wire easily but were almost of a honey consistency practically sticking to my brick!! It was when I noticed that they were cooling down with a grey colour ball that I realised what had happened! Lesson learned!! Keep the Argentium totally seperate from all my other silver!!!

Anyway - with the Argentium being so much stronger I will probably use it for fwp ball pins in future...and might use it in larger beads where I want the strength without the bulk. I think the Argentium works out to be more expensive than fine silver so I will have to rationalise which wire to use for what and when!! I'm going to have a play with maille using Argentium jumprings when I get the time...probably in the new year now!! ...so much to do...so little time!!