Comments for Question About Making Soldered Rings

Comments for
Question About Making Soldered Rings

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Jul 13, 2008
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Sterling vs Fine Silver Jump Rings
by: Alastar Dragonfly

The biggest difference in making a solid connection with these two is the method of connection. Fine silver is practically pure and can be fused together by touching the ends together and heating it with a torch until the metals begin to melt together and pulling away before it gets too hot and puddles on you. There is an art to it and once you get the feel of it, you'll be able to do it perfectly every time.

With Sterling silver, you have to have a solder that will stick to both silver and the copper alloys in order to close them. Just that few percentages of copper will not allow the metal to bond to insef without some outside help. You can get jewelry solder that is made mostly of silver, a little tin, and tiny bit of lead. This has a lower melting point than the sterling alloy but it will stick to the alloy just fine if it is hot enough.

I have a soldering station and a Port-o-Sol butane soldering iron that will get hot enough to solder Sterling, but it won't get hot enough to fuse the Fine silver. You have to have a torch for that. They do make hand torches for just that job, but I don't have one as of yet. I have a full sized acetelyne/oxygen torch, but not a small one.