My Life As A β Jeweller.

[Dennis]

I am an amateur jewellery maker, so I don’t sell to the rich and famous, or have a Royal Warrant. I just give it away to family and friends.

I don’t expect to receive a knighthood, or have a statue erected on Clerkenwell green.

But there is one thing I have discovered that you won’t find in textbooks, or taught at uni. In fact, when I have mentioned it here it has never raised a comment. It is a soldering trick.

If I have a lightweight, or wire construction, I find that by raising the overall temperature with a large but very soft flame, until the piece just threatens to glow in subdued light and hold it, I can use my minitorch selectively, to add more solder to a joint, or safely add collets one by one, without disturbing the rest.

No doubt this idea will die with me and be rediscovered some fifty year hence by someone who will claim it as their own. Good luck to them.
Sorry about my finger in the example below. Dennis