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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