4 MINS!!!!! experience definitely showing there! 52 years wow can you send me all that knowledge telepathically? lol
Tasha x
4 MINS!!!!! experience definitely showing there! 52 years wow can you send me all that knowledge telepathically? lol
Tasha x
I started an apprentiship when I was 15 back in 1961, I have made most things in my career and am quite happy to help with advice when asked. If you are interested just click on my tag name ,Goldsmith and view my profile,there you can see an album of a small selection of my work.
James
James Miller FIPG.
just had a look WOWSERS! OMG I give up already lol, those are truly incredible pieces
Would you mind looking back at my previous posts in this thread about annealing longish pieces and whether to polish up without compound the pierced pieces before soldering to get rid of scratches etc and tell me if the process is correct?, if i'm soldering in small places on a 25.5 cm length surely the soldering won't anneal the full length will it? so should i anneal the length bend into shape then solder? i'm still petrified of over heating ( & to be honest scared of the torch itself lol)
Tasha x
Sorry James just googled you and you are a total legend!
Tasha x
Glad that you like my work Tasha, it's difficult for anyone to give advice without seeing photos of what you are making, if I was making a headpiece with items that needed texturing and soldering this would be my method. Usually the silver comes in an annealed state, so I would have first shaped the headband and just textured the areas that will have items soldered onto, then I would have pierced the items, filed them where needed, and used fine emory papers to remove any scratches before soldering them in place and then pickling them clean. Then I would have hammer textured the whole headband, which would harden the metal before finally polishing with a Tripoli or similar compound to remove any marks, and then a final rouge compound to make the surface shine. Then as you have no cleaning machinery, I would fill a bowl with hot soap[y water, Fairy liquid will do, and use a soft brush to wash any polishing compound off, just dabb the soapy brush onto any pierced areas that may have polish lodged inside. Dry the piece when finished, and if there are any areas that do not shine, just polish with a clean soft polishing mop. If you have used a polishing mop with rouge, just run the mop over an old knife blade and this will remove any polishing compound.
I hope this makes sense, I am sorry but I have no idea of your tool or workshop facilities.
I also meant to ask what type of soldering torch you use? and do you know about using a rouge paste mixture to protect earlier solder joins when doing multiple solderings on the same piece. This is just rouge powder mixed with water into a thick paste and when painted onto earlier solder joints it solidifys when heated and protects the earlier solder joins, then after soldering it is washed off under a running tap before pickling, otherwise you will end up with red pickle.
James
James you are an angel! That rouge paste tip is fantastic! i will try and post some pics of what i have already done (new to forum so will have to work that one out ) at the moment the head band is flat and the texturing has hardened it to a point where i really need to anneal it, do i have to bring the entire length to annealing temp at precisely the exact time? The torch i'm using is a butane cooks torch ( i know i know but it's a hobby & i'm poor lol ) i also have a calor gas blow torch with a wide head but it scares the life out of me tbh, I've practiced annealing with both on short lengths using the permanent marker method and even on a billowy or neutral flame the calor gas was far too hot, the cooks torch seemed to give me more control and still worked very quickly but i'm sure there is no way i can heat the entire length so it's the same temp all along it
Tasha x
Tasha, to anneal a length just gently start at one end, heat a few inches at a time working along the strip. Do this in the dark and you will be able to see that you don't overheat the silver. You do not need to heat the whole length to the same temperature at the same time to anneal it.
To post photos, press the Go Advanced button and you can then post photos from computer files.
James
Ok here goes i took these on my phone so they aren't very good also the sketch is really bad and is just a rough draft sorry
Tasha, looking at what you are making, I think that when you solder the leaves in place the heat that you use will anneal the areas that you will want to bend, so I would not worry about annealling the main frame just yet. If you can make yourself some clamps, they would be perfect for this job. To solder the leaves to the textured frame, I would clean both soldering surfaces where you intend soldering, either with a fibre glass brush or just a file or scraper. Then I would gently melt a piece of fluxed solder on the fluxed leaf end you wish to solder, just melted enough to stick the solder to the leaf end, then clamp the leaf in place on the fluxed wire frame and heat again to run the solder. Then I would repeat the process with the assumed mirror image leaf, pickle the solder joints, clean them up if needed, then just rouge paste the solder joints when soldering the next pieces.
I hope this all makes sense.
James
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