Cufflinks

[Anna Wales]

My boss was entirely self-taught. He decided he wanted to make jewellery so bought Metal Techniques for Craftsmen and off he went. He made some beautiful pieces, I wish I'd been able to afford some but on £26 YTS, £400 items weren't in the equation!
I've had no formal training and there are big gaps in my knowledge but I think having the interest and determination to try is most of the battle. If you want to have a go, have a go, if it goes wrong, try again. There are some good clips on you tube too.
I think there is too much emphasis on college taught and paper qualifications these days. My favourite quote(not mine) is "Theory may inform but practise convinces".

[Dennis]

Thanks for your responses, much appreciated.

Oh, Dennis, I'm so disappointed that you're referring to me as a mere crafter The cufflinks are just for a family friend so with limited time to complete them and to get to grips with soldering I was going for the easiest route. I don't personally feel comfortable with just gluing them, though, so perhaps an extra early morning is the way forward so that I can try and put aside some time. Do you happen to know where I can find an extra 10 hours in a day? I'm off to sit in my crafters corner now

Sorry if I've cause offence, Daisy. To make up I've dug out an old thread I posted two years ago, which might clarify some points about soldering. Regards, Dennis.

http://www.cooksongold.com/forum/sho...eads+by+Dennis

[DaisyDaisy]

Ah, Dennis, absolutely no offence taken, I was just jesting. I'm very grateful for the advice. Hoping to set aside some time over the weekend to give the soldering a go. Think I'm stalling slightly as I'm a bit nervous...don't like to fail and be rubbish at anything! I'll maybe post a photo of my attempts. Maybe :/

[surfergirl]

I'm also self taught and even though I can solder, I would still like to learn from a professional (but think I'd be interested in a course on more complex soldering techniques (yes, even though I still haven't got the basics down pat!)). I should imagine I'm not soldering in the most productive way possible, but I've gone from not being able to solder a sausage (probably because it had a bit of sauce on it and wasn't clean enough) to now being able to enter something in the Cooksons competition (and win!). If I can do it, so can you.

Go on Daisy, have a go. You'll soon be soldering those cufflink findings Dennis' post has some great advice xx

[Patstone]

To add to to what Anna said about too much emphasis on paper qualifications, I couldnt agree more. When I left school, there wasnt as much emphasis on whether you had a paper qualification, you rang the employer asked for an interview and turned up with a CV if you had one, if not it wasnt unusual to be given tests. I worked all my life in different offices from Investment Bank to a few commercial flooring companies, and I dont even have a GCSE, all I have is Shorthand/Typing/Wordprocessing qualifications but I have I have only been out of work for a one month period since I was 16 and worked until I retired at 60. Anyway the jewellery was a hobby until it became an obsession, so I had to sell some, I was accumulating too much to wear!!! I had a one evening a week for 10 weeks at a local college, and have learnt most of the rest from reading and the guys on here helping me, to which I am really grateful, without their help I wouldnt be able to do half of what I can. If the enthusiasm is there you will get through ok, because you will find a way to do it.

[snow_imp]

I have not had a lot of soldering experience - basically I went on a chain making course with the London Jewellery School and it was the first experience of soldering I had ever had - it was good experience but since we were there to make chains and the other attendees could all solder already, I didn't get as much knowledge as I feel I need. The LJS does do a soldering course, but I was told that they expect you to already have the basics under control (this may have changed but I haven't checked).

So I took the plunge a few weeks ago in the house - and although the result wasn't fabulous and I nearly melted a couple of jump rings 'cos I lost concentration for a sec - the result will do just fine on the piece for myself. Now it is just the practice time that I need to put in.

Give it a go and see what happens - the results may just turn out to be one of those "happy mistakes" we make sometimes.

[Dennis]

Your first soldering attempts can commonly go wrong because:

Your flame is too fierce and is concentrated in one place. Close the air hole a little and keep the flame moving.

Or you try to melt the solder before the rest of the metal is upto soldering temperature. Try to heat the whole piece and let the solder melt more by conduction.

If nothing is happening, then the torch is too small for the amount of metal, but you can improve on this by building a little open fronted oven out of soldering blocks and also by using two torches.

It also helps to solder in a darkened area, so that you can easily see where you are concentrating too much heat.

Of course for chains you only aim to heat one link at a time. Dennis

[Wallace]

Also, common problems are greasy joints and a lack of clean joints/ seams and flux.

Solder flows to the hottest area, so evenly heating - as Dennis mentions, is a biggie to pay attention to.

Silver develops a nice orange glow when it is hot enough for the solder to melt. I love soldering and learned a lot by practicing.

Fire scale will happen to some degree if the metal has copper in it, so be prepared to tidy it up if you want a nice high polish on your items.

au flux is designed for gold (perhaps that is why it is called au and not ag? lol ). Borax is a general flux for everything. It is cheap and lasts a long time. It cleans off well and is great for when melting silver.

There are hard solders and paste solders. The order of solder is hard to medium to soft. I tend to use hard all the time as it does not easily pit. But I have been at this for a good seven years (still loads to learn). I use pallions in preference to paste as it is better economically and lasts sooooooo much longer.

I could go on, but will give others a chance. It may be worth moving these to and thread on soldering maybe? Or starting one?

[medusa]

here's a flux question: given how important it is to keep the silver and solder pallions clean, what about the borax cone and dish? Am I being a bit OCD in cleaning it all the time? It seems to get grubby incredibly fast.

[Wallace]

here's a flux question: given how important it is to keep the silver and solder pallions clean, what about the borax cone and dish? Am I being a bit OCD in cleaning it all the time? It seems to get grubby incredibly fast.

I am a little on the ocd side, so only clear mine out on a monthly-ish basis. But that may be a little decptive for some as I only spend evenings at the bench, and then not all night every night. Okay, most evenings. This weekend being the exception due to a particularly nasty tummy and headache bug!

Mind you I do also use Argotex and keep that in a sealed pot, so it keeps things tidy. I use Argo text when I can't be bothered to make up any Pripp flux. Both are used to help reduce the firescale if you are heating a piece often. Both work quite well, but the Argotex is simply a bit of water and a little bit of a specific washing up liquid. Peter may have the up on that..l am too rough to go routing into my cupboard to get it out.