Sterling Silver Head pins

[Jamjar]

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have any tips for making lovely, smooth balls when making headpins with sterling silver and a blow torch? With fine silver the wire always balls up evenly and neatly and I end up with a perfectly round, smooth finish but with sterling I am often getting uneven, pitted balls.

Any help much appreciated!

Kind regards,

Jayne

[mizgeorge]

Sterling will almost always pit using that technique.

Switch to Reflections or Argentium and you'll find you get much better results. Flux helps as well.

[Jamjar]

Thanks for that George - will try those other metals.

You said "using that technique" - is there another way to make them?

[Jamjar]

Have been reading some old reviews (from a couple of years ago) and Reflections silver didn't seem to get very good reviews. Has this improved now?

Kind regards,

Jayne

[mizgeorge]

The other option is to create the ball separately and solder the wire to it - which tends to be a better option for larger pins.

[caroleallen]

A couple of years ago, I was getting pits with Reflections but now that I use my Smiths torch on a very small flame, they're much better.

[mizgeorge]

I still don't think Reflections is as good as Argentium, and it certainly lacks many of the properties that make Argentium so good for certain jobs, but compared to the hassle of sourcing it, Reflections does the trick OK for many things.

[Jamjar]

Thanks everyone!