Soldering Surgical Steel Earring Posts

[BarryM]

I am making a pair of silver earrings and the customer says she is allergic to silver earring posts so must have surgical steel posts. What is the best method for soldering these to silver earrings? I have made several pairs with silver posts and have no problem with the basic soldering technique but am unsure if the same methods will work with surgical steel.

Sorry for the basic question but I am new to this.

Thanks in advance for any help / advice you can offer.

Barry

[mizgeorge]

The problem is that even if you successfully solder these, you're using silver solder and silver backs, which will be in contact with the ear, and people who claim to be 'allergic' to these may have the same reaction. If, of course, it really is a problem with sterling.

The two most common causes of dermatitis ('allergy') for earring wearers are either nickel content (and yes, many imported pieces still contain nickel) or tiny scratches caused by badly finished wire ends which lead to infections. There are also people who are sensitive to the copper content of sterling. Another problem is caused by the habit of many commercial makers to silver plate over sterling for shine and finish (and to save bothering with proper finishing and polishing), and this plating will, in time, start to flake and chip, which can also lead to problems. Same for rhodium plating.

The simplest answer is to use only fine silver for the construction of the whole piece, however this is rarely strong enough for posts. However, argentium 960, especially heat hardened, is usually pretty OK and has a very low copper content, but is strong enough to give a good result. Alternatively, 18ct white gold tends to be fine for most wearers.....

All of that said, yes, it's not hard to solder a steel post to a silver back. It's easiest if you have a small indentation to place the pin into. You do need to be careful about the pickle you use though - and if possible, avoid pickling altogether and just polish back afterwards.

[BarryM]

Thanks for the quick reply, you are probably correct about the "allergy", but the customer is always right so I will comply with their wishes. I'll try standard silver soldering and see how it goes, I follow the point about pickling, something that I would have missed. Many thanks.

[Dennis]

I seemed to remember that sterling does not turn pink in alum solution, so rather than trust my memory, I made up some hot alum, dropped in three iron nails and red hot scrap silver. It pickled to a clean whitish colour.

Then I re-heated one piece and dropped it and the nails into my pickle pot, containing a safety pickle alum mixture for speed. It came out pink as expected.

Conclusion: Ii would not expect any problem with steel posts soldered to silver, pickled in clean fresh alum solution. Dennis.

[BarryM]

Dennis,

Interesting, I currently use "Eco Pickle" (actually citric acid which I bought from a chemical supplier at 20% of the price from jewellery suppliers). It works very well but has to be maintained at a decent temperature and takes a little longer than acid pickle. When I have run out I may try alum as I have, a couple of times, found the pickle adulterated with steel - even a tiny scrap from binding wire caused a 4" sterling dish to turn a pretty but irritating pink from Cu deposit. I did get it off with steel wool but it is a real pain. Alum seems to resolve this and has no downsides as far as I can see.

Barry

Thanks for the tip.

[ps_bond]

Clean, fresh pickle has no copper salts in it, so the only copper that can plate onto your piece is the converted oxide from the piece itself. Not much, and any that does will be a very thin coating, much thinner than used pickle would give you.

[Dennis]

Taking up the further challenge, I annealed some copper wire in hot alum solution and left it in there for an hour. By this time the solution had taken on a pale blue tint. Using this to pickle silver in the presence of iron nails deposited copious amounts of copper on the silver.

So Yes, you can only avoid this problem if the solution is not already loaded with copper salts. Dennis.

[BarryM]

Well i made the earrings today using surgical steel posts and soldered them as I would if they were silver. No problems. I didn't pickle them but used some 1000 grade paper to clean off the scale and then polished. Came up fine.

Thans for the gelp.

[BarryM]

... Or even thanks for the help.

[Petal]

Thanks for posting this Barry and I'm glad you were successful in your soldering.

BTW, does anyone know where I can get some surgical steel wire to wrap my own earwires with please?

Thanks in advance.

[ps_bond]

316L wire is available in 0.8mm diameter, 0.7kg spools in most welding supplies shops... It'll be hard drawn though and can be a bit brittle (too brittle to use as binding wire, for example).

[Dennis]

Jules this company has a good range of stainless steel wires, used for making retaining clasps for dentures and aligning teeth for orthodontics. The wire is hard, but would be easily bent to make ear wires, or straightened for posts.

http://www.bracon.co.uk/search.php?Q=wire

You might like to browse their other products, some of which are relevant, Dennis.

[Petal]

Many thanks Peter and Dennis.

BTW, is there a difference between surgical steel and stainless steel wires?

[mizgeorge]

I also use dental grade surgical steel, usually from KC Smith (though they don't have an online ordering system). It takes a bit of bending, but comes in straight lengths, which are ideal for making ear posts. I have no experience with using regular stainless, but it comes in so many different grades that I've always just stuck to surgical, which I know is safe for anything that's going to be worn in a piercing.