curious about fusing

[joella]

can anyone tell me what fusing is and how it is done, and why you might choose to fuse an item rather than solder it, for example, why would you fuse a jump ring to something rather than just solder it with a pallion, I'm just curious.
thanks, Sue.

[Dennis]

Well Joella,
Fusing is joining two parts made from similar metal by heating just enough for the surfaces to connect.
A good example is joining the ends of fine silver bezel strip so that you don't have a solder seam. As you can imagine this is tricky and personally not a skill I have thought worth cultivating.

However it is used differently in the process of granulation, where small balls are attaches to a backing for decoration without using solder, but with a thin deposit of copper as an intermediary. This has a long tradition and is definitely worth a try, if you can look up the method. Dennis.

[caroleallen]

I don't use it very often these days but it's useful when using fine silver for enamelling as there's no solder to interfere with the enamel. It's also good when using argentium, as that fuses very well.

[joella]

Thanks to you both, your answers are always so informative and interesting - what a jolly interesting and knowledgeable lot you are.