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the dreaded firescale
See those darker spots around my stamp and towards the top?
That my friend is fire-scale.
Know it, recognize it, learn to get rid of it,
if you want a mirror polish on your piece.
What causes fire-scale?
Firescale
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Firescale, also known as firestain, is a red or purple stain that appears on mixtures of silver and copper, such as sterling silver. At high temperatures, oxygen mixes with the copper to form cuprous oxide and then cupric oxide. Attempts to reduce this problem usually involve replacing oxygen with another gas such as hydrogen or ammonia.
With a very high copper content, this may appear on gold mixtures.
A fire scale is a layer of oxides that forms on the surface of metal when a blacksmith heats a tool.
Fire scale commonly occurs during the soldering process in jewelery manufacture, for example soldering a bale onto a finished pendant. The stain can only be removed with further polishing, or removal of affected metal.
** I like to file or sand out my firescale
As you see in the picture below.
total drag but you gotta do it if you want it to look sharp.
Why not use Argentinium?
Because I don't have any and silver is at 34 bucks.
I'm not a fan of Argentinium.
Its stiffer than good old 925,
have to use lower solder on it.
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Can you find the dog?
yep that's the guest bed.
She's snoring right now.
I've taught her when I announce loudly
"KUNG FU!"
She better get ready cause something
is about to happen.
I do weird arm movements and everything.
She totally digs it.
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Get that Design on Silver- a guide to piercing sorta
A tried and true way to keep that design on your silver...
Some people use a scribe and scratch a line in or use a marker.
Not me.
I need a good visual contrast to see where I'm sawing.
Get your design on paper. Cut it close to the design.
Get your RUBBER CEMENT. Coat the paper and also the piece of silver with the glue.
WAIT. Let it dry up some.
Stick the two together.
WAIT.
Now you have a good stick of your design on metal that you can cut through.
When your done peel off the paper and run the rubber cement off.
See all those holes?
I made them.
First drill a tiny hole in each area you will be cutting out.
Next (the biggest pain) is undo the top part
of your saw blade from your saw frame,
insert it in the hole and put the blade
BACK in the frame and close it.
This requires you to put the handle on your right
shoulder blade and push forward as you close
and tighten your saw frame.
WHY?
Because if you don't you will be snapping
saw blades left and right.
You will do this over and over for each hole.
What you see here is 3 hours of continuous work.
How many blades did I break?
NONE.
Am I done?
No.
When I take the paper off will it look great?
No.
Now you know why I hate piercing.
Instead of using a tiny file it's best and less time consuming to use your saw blade in the saw frame as a file.
Sawing is a good test of patience.
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Work progresses
If you haven't been following along the posts below
explain the start of these hand buildt pieces of jewelry...
I traced the outside of the form on a piece of silver
then cut it out, making it a little bigger than needed.
I then stamped in the quit date of my non-smoker friend!
The bottom mark 925 is for sterling silver,
and the lizard is my hallmark-
(it is also tattooed on the arch of my left foot).
OK there was some pounding with a rawhide mallet
to get the piece as flat as possible.
Stamping distorts the metal a little, and we need
this baby flat for soldering to the form.
filing, filing, sanding, sanding
you know the routine....
Until we have both pieces flat with no spaces.
Ta Da! I already soldered it.
I used medium solder, because I used
the higher melting HARD solder to make the form.
We don't want things coming undone.
I watched as the solder crept its way around the box.
Can't have any holes because I'm going to fill
this with some fun stuff with color...
that comes later.
I have to make an inside form which will use
math skills which my brain has forgotten,
or I'll just wing it.
What's this? 2nd project in progress
Re-soldered it, made some adjustments to the bottom form.
Sanded down the tops of the bezels,
then totally pulled a brainfart and took some metal
off from the inside of the bezel. (OUTSIDE! ALWAYS!)
Its ok I still think the bezels might be a bit too high.
Once I make a mistake I usually stop
because it means I'm getting tired.
Next step check the stones in the bezel,
using a piece of dental floss underneath each stone
so you can pop it back out to make any adjustments.
Oh and the black... I oxidized the piece.
You will understand once I polish it.
Stay tuned...
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explain the start of these hand buildt pieces of jewelry...
I traced the outside of the form on a piece of silver
then cut it out, making it a little bigger than needed.
I then stamped in the quit date of my non-smoker friend!
The bottom mark 925 is for sterling silver,
and the lizard is my hallmark-
(it is also tattooed on the arch of my left foot).
OK there was some pounding with a rawhide mallet
to get the piece as flat as possible.
Stamping distorts the metal a little, and we need
this baby flat for soldering to the form.
filing, filing, sanding, sanding
you know the routine....
Until we have both pieces flat with no spaces.
Ta Da! I already soldered it.
I used medium solder, because I used
the higher melting HARD solder to make the form.
We don't want things coming undone.
I watched as the solder crept its way around the box.
Can't have any holes because I'm going to fill
this with some fun stuff with color...
that comes later.
I have to make an inside form which will use
math skills which my brain has forgotten,
or I'll just wing it.
What's this? 2nd project in progress
Re-soldered it, made some adjustments to the bottom form.
Sanded down the tops of the bezels,
then totally pulled a brainfart and took some metal
off from the inside of the bezel. (OUTSIDE! ALWAYS!)
Its ok I still think the bezels might be a bit too high.
Once I make a mistake I usually stop
because it means I'm getting tired.
Next step check the stones in the bezel,
using a piece of dental floss underneath each stone
so you can pop it back out to make any adjustments.
Oh and the black... I oxidized the piece.
You will understand once I polish it.
Stay tuned...
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