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Thread: Sterling Silver Solder Wire

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2020
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    1

    Post Sterling Silver Solder Wire

    Hi Everyone

    New to the forum and need help!

    I like making silver link jewellery items and my problem is with sterling silver strip solder, my preference is using medium and hard solder for the reliability in strength on the soldered links but it is oh so tedious and time-consuming cutting and thinning the pallions so small so as not to leave a big blob on the joint

    I would prefer to use sterling silver solder wire as I know it will be so much easier to manage and obtain consistency, to buy this wire in the UK, I only know of one supplier and in my opinion, and without naming the supplier, has an over the top price tag, in fact, it's cheaper to buy inclusive of delivery from Rio Grande but the delivery time lets it down.

    Just a few questions below

    1 Does anyone know of suppliers in the UK for sterling silver solder wire either hard/medium 0.8 to 1.2 diameter?

    2 Can Argentium solder wire be used to solder sterling silver, I have seen this wire on Cookson's website but I do not know if it is compatible with Sterling Silver, if it is, does it require a different flux? I use a borax cone.

    I have a few Draw Plates which I use to obtain the correct diameter to suit my A.R. spec so could use the Draw Plates for the solder wire as well, anything larger such as casting my own solder ingots is not possible as I don't have a Rolling Mill

    Any feedback is very much appreciated

    MrLincs

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Central London
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    8,845

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    There's quite a bit on Etsy, but perhaps that's the one you find too dear.

    Many of us here avoid medium solder as not flowing well, so you might also consider the hard from metal clays: https://www.metalclays4you.co.uk/sil...e-hard-75-x-1m and the easy from Cookson.

    That said, if you can thin your strip solder by rolling or beating and make the long cuts with a saw, you will have much less difficulty in snipping multiple even pallions.

    Welcome to the forum, Dennis.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    South Australia
    Posts
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    Yes you can use Argentium for Sterling, although they make a special flux for Argentium, I do not like and use Borax based flux as far as them medium solder curse I have not yet had the problem

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    West Berkshire
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    660

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    I often use Argentium medium (hard not available) for sterling and find it gives a nice colour and also flows easily. I just use Auflux

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    South Australia
    Posts
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    I have no trouble getting hard Argentium solder down here.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Posts
    470

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    When it comes to creating tiny pieces of solder I just beat my soldeer strips with a hammer on a bench block until it's thinner, cut down the strip and then acorss with snips into a tin, one tin for hard solder and one for easy, that way I've always got lots of tiny pieces (and some larger as I vary the cuts) for whatever I'm doing. takes about five minutes tops to do a cm or so of each strip.

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