Making earwires...help please!

[Petal]

So do you use Argentium then? or just stick to sterling?

x

[Di Sandland]

So do you use Argentium then? or just stick to sterling?

x

Me? I stick to sterling but only because I'm not seeking perfect, unpitted balls

[Di Sandland]

... and I do oxidise a lot and the pitting looks really interesting when it stays black and you polish the raised bits.

[shelliem]

Also reads with interest - thanks everybody

[shelliem]

Sorry me again ...

I was just wondering to make the balls, pitted or otherwise do you just hold them under a torch until they start melting and then dunk them in cool water?

[Di Sandland]

1. Cut a piece of wire slightly longer than you want your headpin to be
2. Hold one end of the wire with the tweezers, with the other end of the wire pointing down.
3. Direct the torch flame at the wire end. The bit just beyond the blue cone works best for me.
4. A little ball of silver will form and seem to climb up the wire
5. The longer you keep the torch there, the bigger the ball will be
6. Don't get too ambitious though - cos the ball sometimes falls off if you keep it in the flame too long
7. Quench the pins in water
8. Pickle to remove the black (not necessary for fine silver, not sure about Argentium)

Et voila

[Solunar Silver Studio]

Hmmm - in my experience - you pickle the Argentium too. The ball is very often silver but the wire tends to go grey. But then - sometimes it doesn't! Fickle stuff!!
It is also risky to do it with Argentium if you are prone to the shakes as I have had the ball drop off and bounce away if you twitch or jiggle it at all!

[shelliem]

Thanks Di and thanks Gemma for starting this thread

[mizgeorge]

For the sake of completeness, I just made a quick pair of earwires in this style in 0.8mm argentium.

Apologies for bad picture (grabbed the first camera that came to hand, which doesn't have the best macro), but it should be enough to show that the balled ends are completely unpitted.

I don't pickle my argentium, just polish it up to remove the greyness - mainly because I find that quicker. I guess it took about 3 minutes from start to finish - and that included going to another room to find a torch.

Hope that helps!

[Petal]

For the sake of completeness, I just made a quick pair of earwires in this style in 0.8mm argentium.

Apologies for bad picture (grabbed the first camera that came to hand, which doesn't have the best macro), but it should be enough to show that the balled ends are completely unpitted.

I don't pickle my argentium, just polish it up to remove the greyness - mainly because I find that quicker. I guess it took about 3 minutes from start to finish - and that included going to another room to find a torch.

Hope that helps!

Very useful replies guys. George, was the headpin I soldered made in Argentium too, then? It looks nice and shiney, but is quite soft, was that because it wasn't tumbled to work harden it then?