visible solder joint

[Fraser]

We hear a lot about having clean, well fitting joints, but as Petal says above, the solder itself (and the flux) must be properly clean. I use emery paper to remove any tarnish from the solder strip, then wipe away any dust with a clean, dry cloth. And always flux the solder pieces as well as the join.

[Aurarius]

[QUOTE=Goldsmith;70451 That was many years ago, now she only wears 18ct jewellery.

James[/QUOTE]

My wife keeps telling me she reacts badly to silver and needs to wear only things made of 18ct gold or platinum. Whenever she tells me this, I tend to react badly too.

[Eve]

.
Use some silver hard and add a small amount of fine silver to it.
This effectively makes it a super hard solder, more difficult to solder but with less reactive metal like zinc in it.

Hi,
I'm a newbie in soldering and sadly I have the same issue with visible solder lines.
My question is, how do you add fine silver to hard solder? Do you just melt those together and place on the seam?

Many thanks

[Goldsmith]

This is an old subject, but if you make your solder joints tight and are still getting solder lines then perhaps try using some enamelling grade silver solder as this has a higher silver content than hard silver solder along with a slightly higher melting point. This is the Cooksongold link to this solder; https://www.cooksongold.com/Solders/...der&channel=uk

James

[Dennis]

Without wishing to annoy anyone, I would say this is a storm in a tea cup and most of us accept the result using normal hard solder, but ensuring as close a fit as possible.

I would just mention that if a soldered junction is filed back and polished, then heating for further soldering on that particular piece, can create a convex line (a meniscus) where the area was flat before.
Those who are aware of this, leave any trimming back until all soldering is completed. Dennis.

[Eve]

This is an old subject, but if you make your solder joints tight and are still getting solder lines then perhaps try using some enamelling grade silver solder as this has a higher silver content than hard silver solder along with a slightly higher melting point.

James

Thank you so much, James, for suggesting this solder, it actually works, problem solved!
I have 2 hard solder strips, both from different suppliers with 67% silver content and they leave visible seams. The colour in both strips is quite yellowish but I don't have anything else to compare them with.
Still it's quite a shame the ordinary hard solder didn't work for me...

[Dennis]

It is worth noting that enamelling solder contains zinc and if you are going to use it regularly, you will need good ventilation and possibly a respirator for toxic metals.

Here is a link to a review of toxicity in metals used for jewellery and my excerpt for zinc.
https://www.ganoksin.com/article/met...y-information/ Dennis.

[TDA20]

Dennis, please excuse my ignorance but I thought hard silver solder contained zinc as well? Is it in a smaller quantity than in enamelling solder or am I just getting it confused with something else?

[Dennis]

Yes you are right, but Cookson warn you about the zinc content and given the high temperature used to melt it, precautions should be taken seriously. Dennis.

[TDA20]

That makes sense, thanks Dennis.