Gold on Silver

**Joe** · 05-10-2010, 10:28 PM

Originally Posted by Emerald

Hi Lee you need gold solder to solder this, if your gold is 9ct then you need 9ct gold solder if 18 ct you need 18

Erm, I'm not sure I'd agree with that. I often accent my silver work in 18ct and almost never use gold solder. Does anyone else have difficulties with that?

I second Dennis' caution about practice - you've picked yourself one of the more difficult soldering tasks there!

**caroleallen** · 06-10-2010, 07:45 AM

My two pennyworth is that it's very easy to overheat such a small piece and once your solder has started to flow, take the heat away immediately or you'll get a load of solder around the gold which will be difficult to clean up. You may find that the little bit of gold will sink into the silver as well. As someone else said, practice with copper on silver before you risk using gold.

**Dennis** · 06-10-2010, 10:33 AM

Joe: Yes, I agree, silver solder is fine for this. It is sometimes important to check the relative melting points of solder and the main metal metal though. For instance Some 9ct golds melt perilously close to the melting point of hard silver solder. The Cook Book has several pages on this.

Carole: It wasn't someone else, it was me.

Kind regards to both of you, Dennis.

**leemorris** · 06-10-2010, 12:11 PM

Thanks for all the replies
I didn't think this was such a hard task, maybe i'll try something a bit easier for my first soldering job.
Thanks
I will post some pics when i've tried it.
Lee

**orestruck** · 06-10-2010, 07:08 PM

Get some easy silver solder paste, put a tiny blob of it on the back of the gold piece, the pop it in place on the silver. Gently heat the piece up until you see the solder flash out (you will know it when it happens!) take the heat away, then pickle and finish.

Sarah

**caroleallen** · 06-10-2010, 07:18 PM

Originally Posted by Dennis

Joe: Yes, I agree, silver solder is fine for this. It is sometimes important to check the relative melting points of solder and the main metal metal though. For instance Some 9ct golds melt perilously close to the melting point of hard silver solder. The Cook Book has several pages on this.

Carole: It wasn't someone else, it was me.

Kind regards to both of you, Dennis.

Sorry Dennis, I was just too lazy to trawl back through to see who said it!

**mizgeorge** · 06-10-2010, 09:15 PM

Originally Posted by orestruck

Get some easy silver solder paste, put a tiny blob of it on the back of the gold piece, the pop it in place on the silver. Gently heat the piece up until you see the solder flash out (you will know it when it happens!) take the heat away, then pickle and finish.

Sarah

without offending the purists, this is how I do it too. It's one of the applications where paste is infinitely easier to use than traditional solder chips. I do lots of things using this technique, like this:

silver and gold bumpies by mizgeorge, on Flickr

**orestruck** · 07-10-2010, 06:03 AM

I am self taught George - so if I find a method that works and is invisible, I just go with it!
Lovin' your bumpies

!

Sarah
X

**Dennis** · 07-10-2010, 04:59 PM

Not so much a purist George , as trying to give cast iron advice to a beginner. As always, I am full of admiration for your work, with knobs on .
Kind regards, Dennis.

**leemorris** · 07-10-2010, 08:34 PM

Thought i would have a play around with the solder today and i couldn't get it to melt , how long do i need to heat it for?
I had a go with some silver wire and it melted within seconds.
Lee