Palladium

[sheepy]

I'm making a wedding band out of Palladium sheet & it will have an 18ct 1mm yellow wire inlaid into the sheet to represent contour lines of some peaks in Snowdonia.

I've been reading up on palladium both here, UKJC and my own books and am not sure on how to work or treat the metal, i think kindly for the latter & i've loads of questions for the former!

Oppi Unctracht Jewellery Concepts & Technology has just frightened me. I read that after using steel tools on the platinum family the precious metal should be pickled in hot hydrocholoric acid before annealing and what binding wire would be used if steel is an issue. what is the general practise or advice?

I use a propane sievert set up, will this be adequate to solder the band then the inlay?

Will the Auflux be suitable for all the soldering steps ( I am thinking of the palladium solder for the shank) including the gold wire or will I have to use Tenacity 125 Flux for both steps?

I used a graver to carve out a groove in the silver mock up for the contrasting wire, will this still be as easy to do in Palladium?

I've just received the brilliant 'Bench' magazine & after reading the article on Palladium I wondered how the inclusion of 18ct gold would affect the hall markabilty of the finished object?

and talking of brilliance what polishing compounds would you recommend?

I tried to upload an image but I'm not sure if I did it right