Soldering reflections silver

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with soldering reflections silver? I have a commission to make and thought lets try reflections. After 4 hours of frustrating soldering I decided to give up for the day. The solder just wouldn't flow despite it being clean and plenty of flux. It took me 4 to 5 attempts eacht to solder a simple straight oval together. It kept breaking. The next day I made the same with normal silver and it only took me half an hour to do what took me 4 hours the previous day.

I guess what I'm asking if it was just me or if it's just a bit rubbish.

Thanks Marlies

Have you looked in the cookbook ? Is there anything there.

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Originally Posted by marlies

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with soldering reflections silver? I have a commission to make and thought lets try reflections. After 4 hours of frustrating soldering I decided to give up for the day. The solder just wouldn't flow despite it being clean and plenty of flux. It took me 4 to 5 attempts eacht to solder a simple straight oval together. It kept breaking. The next day I made the same with normal silver and it only took me half an hour to do what took me 4 hours the previous day.

I guess what I'm asking if it was just me or if it's just a bit rubbish.

Thanks Marlies

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I use reflections, never had any problems whatsoever. Are your joints clean? And are the seam stood without any gaps?

I have never used this alloy, but is there a specific solder to use instead of normal 925 solder? ie is there a Reflections solder?

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Originally Posted by art925

I have never used this alloy, but is there a specific solder to use instead of normal 925 solder? ie is there a Reflections solder?

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That's an interesting thought, becaus ideally "reflections solder" should oxidize at the same rate to help hide joints.

Julian

Yes the joints were clean. Even pushed them together and sawed trough to get no gaps. I've almost finished the piece now so the end is in sight but I think I'll stick to 'normal' sterling silver for now. I'll have a look in the cookbook see what it says.
Maybe it's just me then ;)
Thanks for your insights
Marlies

I've used reflections quite a lot - with no soldering problems at all

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Originally Posted by Di Sandland

I've used reflections quite a lot - with no soldering problems at all

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Is the 9% extra worth it. How do. You sell/ market it ?

J

No, Julian, it's not worth the premium.

When Cookies first started selling it, they sent me some samples to test but, as this was a couple of years ago and I was a very raw recruit, I thought perhaps it was my technique that was to blame rather than the material. Some of my friends were also less than thrilled at the time - I think Carole and George were part of the 'gang.' I do like to flog a dead horse though and when I was using a lot of balled wire recently I swapped some with a friend - the design I was making was a lot more 'refined' than my usual and crinkled balls just wouldn't do.

Well, I still had crinkled balls! I don't like the way it polishes up either - not a patch on Argentium, which I used to love.

So, as for marketing it - I can't, I'm glad I swapped it rather than fork out my sterling +9% for it ;-)

I use it for headpins, and ...erm... that's about it. It does ball up OK if it's well fluxed, but only at smaller gauges (up to about 1mm). I don't like it as much as Argentium because it doesn't fuse reliably, but I won't order bullion from the US - partly because of the shipping cost and delay, but largely because of the huge ransom to actually get it delivered and I'm still not happy with the Italian version from Argex.

I SO wish Cookies had hung on to the Argentium licence - Reflections really isn't anywhere near good enough to be a viable alternative and certainly isn't worth the extra money for anything other than a couple of applications. I can't say I've ever noticed a real difference in tarnish resistance compared to sterling, and the lack of dedicated solder can mean that larger joins show up in time.

All of that said, and in answer to the original question, I've had no problems soldering it, either with strip or paste. For the former I use au[ro]flux rather than borax, which might make a difference?

Quite an indictment of the industry then, that with all their research and marketing, the most that can be said for the product is that it is OK for headpins.

Interesting discussion because I had also experienced problems with balling up Reflections and thought it was just me! I don't use it any more.
Theresa

Isn't it nice when somebody has had the same problem and you can stop feeling like a failure!

I use a borax cone for all my soldering so that might have something to do with it. But in the end I've finished it and it looks good. Bit annoyed it took so much longer. I'll stick to sterling for now.

Marlies