fusing sterling silver wire yay or nay

[verbena]

Hello google is contrary about this and I've searched the forum but couldn't find an answer.

I thought you could not fuse sterling silver, only fine, but i just tried it with a 1mm SS wire ring with a dab of borax and it worked.... and after a light buff I have a perfect seamless circle yay!

Just checking, is there another reason the advice is not to fuse? is the seam weak and that's why the advice is to solder? Just want to check if I use this method that rings I make won't snap / break later or something

Thanks in advance.

V :-)

[Dennis]

Hello V :-). You are the victim of fake news. Balling up sterling wire is done quite commonly, although I have heard, that Argentium can give even better results.
Kind regards, Dennis.

[mizgeorge]

It can be done - and sometimes it works. Other times it doesn't and the ends just run away from one another and make an unholy mess. It can end up being brittle at the fuse point, and it can also end up just looking blobby.

Argentium, on the other hand, works every time, can be hallmarked as sterling (it's actually 935) and doesn't cost enough of a premium to make it not worth using instead. You have to be very careful not to overheat - a fraction of a second too long and it will start to shrink in on itself, but the end results are lovely.

And of course it's far more tarnish resistant than sterling.

[verbena]

just a note to say thank you both for the replies! :-) V