Sunday, June 19, 2005

Argentium - Dim the lights!!!


From the picture above you can see I had a little trouble today. I was annealing a piece of Argentium to prepare it for hammering. I was working in fairly strong light and thought the piece had cooled sufficiently to allow me to quench it in water….Wrong! As you can see, the results were disastrous. Oh well, another piece to be used in casting or fusing. The next piece I tried to anneal I allowed to cool a bit more and had no problems. Working in dim light, and waiting for the red glow to almost go away is a much safer approach to the problem. The picture of the Argentium above was taken right after it was quenched. Note the lack of tarnish or firescale that you would see on standard Sterling.
My wife wore the pendant shown in my last posting to the Tombstone, AZ Gem and Mineral show Tombstone's Gem & Mineral Show this weekend. The piece attracted a lot of attention. There was quite a bit of interest shown, not only in the piece, but also in Argentium.


Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Argentium - Trying something new


Last week I received my first shipment of Argentium Sterling® silver sheet and wire from Max And Me Beads. I only ordered a small amount (1.87 feet 10G round wire, 48 feet 24 G round wire, (1)6”x3” 30 G sheet, and (1) 6”x3” 24 G sheet). On the weekend I started on my new project.

The first thing I would need for my project was some square wire. I have not been able to find any square wire yet so I had to make my own. I didn’t have a draw plate for square wire so I took a piece of the 10 G round wire and hammered it on four sides until I had a piece of square wire. I then cut and filed the wire so that all my solder joints would match up well with no gaps. I also took a small piece of wire and hammered on it a little more than I did with the square wire. Without warning the metal splintered into many small slivers. Now I have a pretty good idea when I need to anneal the metal.

The next step was to solder the frame together. I used Ultra Flux® brand paste flux. Soldering went well. Using medium solder, the flux turned clear just before the solder flowed. Easy! I did have one problem during the soldering process. As I was soldering, I tried to man-handle a piece of wire with a soldering pick. I was surprised how easily the piece of wire broke in two. I replaced the broken piece of wire and was off and running again.

I wanted the piece to have a bold hammered surface so I annealed the piece and went to work with my planishing hammer. The metal was surprisingly soft and the small hammer made nice deep marks with very little effort. I then took the piece to my flat lap and sanded the back side nice and smooth.

Next I made a bezel cup for my Angelite cabochon using a piece of the 24 G sheet and some fine silver bezel wire. Once the cup was made, I soldered it to the frame using easy solder. I then made a small bezel setting for a 4mm pink Tourmaline (this was my first attempt ever to set a facetted stone in a bezel). I took a small piece of the 30 G sheet and made a small tube just large enough for the Tourmaline to fit into. I then made another tube that fit inside the first tube. The smaller tube was also a little bit shorter than the larger tube. I inserted the small tube into the larger tube and soldered them to a piece of 30 G sheet. I trimmed the sheet to match the tube, leaving a small tab on the side of the tube (this tab was used to help secure the bezel to the frame). I then soldered the small cup to the frame using easy solder. Because the Argentium Sterling® doesn’t seem to conduct heat as well as standard Sterling, I didn’t feel the need to go to an easier solder.

Next I made a tube for the bail. Since I don’t have a draw plate with large enough holes to make my tube, I had to improvise. I cut out a small square of 24 G sheet and bent it over a small bezel mandrel. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get the ends to match up enough to solder them properly. I then took the tube and smashed it down on the ends with my rawhide mallet. This made the ends match up perfectly. I then soldered the tube with medium solder. After the tube was soldered, I reshaped it on the bezel mandrel. I then filed the ends so that they matched well.

After the tube was completed, I soldered it to the top of the frame with easy solder. All the ends were then filed smooth and the piece was polished.

I put the piece in the oven at 550 Deg. for 45 minutes. The purpose for putting the piece in the oven was to harden it. After the piece cooled, I took the piece out of the oven. It had a brownish tarnish over all the Argentium® pieces. I also noted that I could now easily see where the solder was verses the Argentium®. The soldered areas showed no sign of the brownish tarnish. I then polished the piece again. Wow, what a nice luster. I then set the stones and polished the piece once more.

My wife gets all my prototypes. She tests them to see what kind of comments we get on the pieces and also to test them for durability before I start producing them for sale. It will be interesting to see what kind of comments she gets out of this piece.