By Trevor Hannam

Silver (Ag) Specific Gravity 10.31 - A white pure metal that is too soft to be used as jewellery. Silver is mixed with copper to produce ‘Sterling Silver’, 925 parts of silver to 75 parts copper. This is the standard used today and is consistent world wide. Sterling Silver is normally marked 925 and has a melting point of 961°C - To use Sterling Silver it has to be annealed, that is, it has to be made soft or malleable by using heat. Heat affects metals in different ways, UNDERSTANDING THE GAS FLAME for example, when steel is heated to a straw yellow colour and cooled rapidly by dropping it into water it Cooler Flame - Incomplete Combustion forms an extremely hard metal that is used for files, 4 Known as an Oxidising Flame (reactive gas) chisels etc.. When Sterling Silver is heated to a dull red colour and dropped into water it goes very soft

Hottest part of the flame is the working or pliable. Sterling Silver is quite different to steel as 3 Area - known as Non Oxidising (1,300°C) it is a non ferrous material. When ferrous metals are heated, atoms that make up the metal speed up and move all over the place. 2 Area of Intense Combustion When too much heat is applied the atoms become so violent in movement the meatal begins to melt or 1 become very soft, but when it is cooled quickly the Blue Flame - Coldest part of the atoms do not have time to rearrange themselves flame, consist mainly of unburnt gases into their normal lines, so the metal becomes ex- tremely brittle (easy to chip or break). 1) Is the coldest part of the gas flame as it consists mainly of unburnt gases Sterling Silver and gold work the opposite way caus- and air. ing the metal to become quite pliable, or as we 2) Area of complete combustion with intense heat at the tip (1300°C). Non know it, ‘Annealed’. Oxidising flame. 3) The area to solder with as temp is at When you start to bend Sterling Silver, you will no- the hottest and is a non oxidising flame which cause no fire scale (no tice that it will start to become stiff and as you keep free air to form oxidation) bending it will eventually snap. This is known as 4) This is a reactive gas area and con- tains unburnt gases, fire scale and is ‘work hardening’, and is true to all metals. As the cooler than No3 - (Do not use this area for soldering) metal bends it heats up due to friction of the atoms being forced to move within themselves. This causes (Fig 1) Gas Flame the metal to work harden, and like most metals, you will find that you will need to keep annealing the metal to keep it pliable (malleable). To anneal Sterling Silver - Heat to a dull red (approx 670°C) and drop into cool water The diagram above is that of a standard air and LPG flame from a medium size burner that is attached to a refillable or dispos- able bottle. The heat produced from this flame is quite hot and will melt silver and gold quite well (approx. 1300°C).

1

By Looking at the flame (Fig 1) on the opposite page you can see that the hottest part of the flame is at the end of the second inner cone (intense combustion). Because this flame between the No 2 & 3 areas consists of all burnt gasses and no air, makes for a perfect placement for soldering. This part of the flame is classed as a non oxidising flame, simply because, the flame contains no oxygen to oxidize the metal being heated (soldered). This type of LPG burner can be classed as an all rounder and will be used for nearly all of your jewellery work, consisting of silver, gold and most other metals as well. Silver Solder: Comes in three grades - Hard, Medium and soft. Hard: This solder melts at approximately 765°C Medium: This solder melts at approximately 740°C Soft: This solder melts at approximately 715°C The differences in melting points of the solders is due to the combination of copper and zinc base metals in the silver. Cut silver solder into very small snippets, approximately 1 to 1.5mm length pieces (from wire) when needed or you can cut a lot and store into a small container mixed with some borax powder which helps keep oxidation off the silver solder. If the solder you are using is oxidized, clean with a fine piece of wet & dry silicon paper or steel wool. Before you solder, you will need a good flux. - Why do you require a flux? When metals such as silver or gold are heated to high temperatures, they combine with oxygen from the air to form oxides. These ox- ides will prevent solder from fusing the metals together. Flux is used to dissolve existing oxides, prevent further oxidization and keep the metal clean, thus forming a perfect join. Flux must be able to withstand very high temperatures, not burn, yet remain active to keep the metal clean and free from air so that the solder can flow. Surfaces to be joined must be free from contaminates such as oils, waxes and dirt. This can be achieved by using a pickling solution which we will discuss just a little later in the session. The most common flux to use is made by CIG and is used for brazing. It is an ‘Easyflo’ paste and is white creamy water based slurry made mostly of Borax Powder. This will be the flux we will be using during the course, however, we can also use the liquid based flux available from most clubs, but I find the Esyflo flux better. Pickling of Metals: When metals are heated to high temperatures in air they have the tendency to form oxides as discussed earlier. This can’t be helped, it’s part of nature and is often referred to as fire scale. So! When soldering joints etc., you will use a flux to try and prevent this fire scale. Fluxes must be removed from the work piece when finished as they form a glass like substance on the surface of the work. To remove this scale (oxides) we have to use an acid. The acid that is normally used is H2S04 - Sulphuric acid and is available from most any shop that sells sealed lead acid batteries or from a chemical supplier (38%). The dilution rate for use is one to one by volume (1:1). A little caution is required here - Pickling solutions are acidic and must be handled with care. Alaways add acid to water - (The 3 A’s) and not the other way around as extreme heat from the liquids combining together can cause an explosive mixture. The acid will need to be heated to around 40 to 50°C when in use. Do not breath the fumes as it is highly irritant to the lungs and always keep the acid pot covered. Always use adequate ventilation at your work bench. If acid is accidently splashed on you or your clothes, wash immediately with plenty of water and use sodium bicarbonate with water as a neutralizer. Use a glass/Pyrex or ceramic (glazed) containers for the pickling bath. One of the best items for a pickling bath is an old coffee filter drip machine, which can be purchased cheaply from any recycling and thrift shop etc.. To pickle an article when soldering, just drop the piece into the hot pickling bath. This is a very efficient way to clean silver metals, but don’t leave the piece in the bath for more than a few minutes as the solder will begin to be attacked. This is due to the higher zinc and copper content of the solder.

2 Mixing the Pickle solution: Mix the acid with water in a ratio of 1:1 by volume, Always add acid to water, (make sure you get a 38% solution of sulphuric acid which is the normal percentage for lead acid batteries - Not 92%). It is always handy to have a small container of dissolved sodium bicarbonate in water for neutralizing any acid spills or acid from your work piece. This is particularly true for metals that have small pores or holes in it, otherwise further soldering can be difficult.

Always use copper or brass tongs for pickling solutions NEVER USE STEEL If you use steel tweezers in the pickling bath your piece of work you have just completed will become coated in copper. You do not want this. What happens when using steel tweezers (or any steel piece) in a pickling bath cause an electric current to flow within the acid solution causing an electroplating action which covers your piece with copper. DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN.

Some basic equipment needed for metal smithing: • A small metal pick or long thin needle of stainless steel for moving solder snippets around your work piece • Rusty iron binding wire. Thin gauge used for tying larger work pieces together • Wire Hold Downs (The Third Hand) - Will show you how to make these at the end of this tutorial • Fire brick (must be soft type) • Gas burner or similar as discussed earlier • Round nose pliers • Flat long nose pliers • Jewellery saw and blades • Draw Plate if you can afford one • Beeswax and a small container of olive oil • Small Hammer (flat and ballpein) • Small vice of aluminium or steel with soft jaws • Wooden clamp peg for holding a ring etc • Jewellers ‘V’ type saw block • Tweezers - Steel for heating, Copper for acid bath and plastic ones if needed • Needle files • Wet & Dry silicon carbide paper - 300 to 600 grit • Paddle pop sticks and some contact adhesive • Tripoli pre-polish stick • Rouge polish stick • Fine steel wool for cleaning and polishing of silver • Small fine steel wire brushes if you can get them • Strips of cotton cloth used for pre-polish and polishing • A small spirit burner is handy as well

Next Page - Using the Jewellery Saw

3 USING A DRAW PLATE TO REDUCE WIRE THICKNESS

We have 600mm of 1.5mm sterling silver wire and before you can get your teeth into chain making you are going to have to reduce the thickness of the wire to 1.2 diameter. How do we do this? Simple - We are going to use what is called a ‘draw plate’. A draw plate is usually made of high grade steel and comes in a multi- tude of different holes sizes and shapes refer (Fig 4). All we are going to do is to reduce your wire size down to the correct size of 1.2mm (Fig 4) 30 Hole Standard Draw Plate by using a series of different size holes. The first thing now is to anneal the wire, and this is done by coiling the wire into a small coil and using a gas blow lamp heat the wire over a fire brick until it turns a cherry red colour and then quickly quenched the coil by dropping the heated wire into a cool water bath. Pickle the wire in the pickling solution and then wash in water or dip into a prepared solution of sodium bicarbonate ( 2 teaspoon to 500ml of wa- ter). This will remove all acids from the wire. Wash in clean water and roll the wire back out into a straight length. Taper the end of the wire by slightly hammering the tip, about 20mm, ro- tating the wire all the time you are hammering. When you have finished you should have a nice tapered end that will fit into the draw plate, but be a couple size holes smaller than the 1.5mm wire size. Place the draw plate in a good vice as you will require a fair force to pull the wire through, refer diagram (Fig5). Note: The vice should be good solid one and not a flimsy alloy one. (Fig 5) Draw Plate

BELOW IS A COLLECTION OF ROUND HOLE DRAW PLATES MADE OF CARBIDE These are available in square, round, 1/2 round and triangular Carbide ones are very expensive - so shop around

4 USING THE JEWELLERS SAW - Bench Pin

Selecting the Blade for the Jewellery Saw: (Fig 2) Saw Blade Size for cutting The correct blade size to use for a jewellery saw is as per (Fig2). Saw blade sizes come in sizes ranging from 8/0 to 10. As per the drawing you will see the best range to use for sawing silver is 3/0 to 5/0 and is based on the thickness of the material you would be 8/0 6/0 5/0 4/0 3/0 2/0 1/0 0 1 2 3 cutting. Basically, the rule of the thumb is to have 2-3 teeth to the thickness of the material that you are cutting.

(A) (D) Now, lets look at the actual saw (refer Fig3). The blade is always (E) Tension placed into the frame with the teeth of the blade facing towards (C) (B) the handle ( not the same as a normal hacksaw blade). Cutting is (Fig 3) always done on the downward stroke. Clamp one end of the blade (serrations toward the handle) into 3/0 Saw Blade - Notice serrations go toward Handle the handle end (B), Line up with the other end so that it is parallel and tighten the thumbscrew firmly. Now fit the other end of the blade into place at (C). You may have to adjust (A) to the correct length so that the blade just enters into the jaw. Tighten the thumbscrew firmly. Now adjust the saw frame by placing the handle end (D) into your bench and push (E) downwards. Keep the pressure on while you lock the thumbscrew (A) firmly. Using The Saw: The blade will automatically tension itself due to the spring tension in the frame. To test the correct ten- sion, use a fingernail and clip the blade. It should produce a high note (like a twang). This is the correct tension and you are now ready to use the jewellery saw.

Refer (Fig A) - This is the Jewellers Bench Pin and is one of the most used pieces of his arsenal that you can have. It is used for sawing, filing, holding pieces of work, Sanding (Fig A) and many other uses. Make sure that you have one of these to begin your basic silver smithing course. You will be cutting out the queen in a $0.10 piece and this will give you plenty of prac- Jewellers Bench Pin tice in using the saw (I am sure you will break quite a few blades as cutting curves can be quite difficult for beginners). The secret for success in cutting pieces of metal is always cut on the downward stroke with very little pressure against the work and always use a lubricant of beeswax, olive oil or candle stick. Applied on the aera that you are cutting and on the saw blade as well. Refer (Fig B) You can see the action of the blade cutting on the downward stroke without much pressure against the blade. Always pull back a little on the upward stroke to prevent jam- (Fig B) ming and wear of the blade. When cutting around corners etc make sure you are cutting downward on a 90° angle and when cutting in a straight line angle the blade outward a little - It helps believe me ----- One last thing - Make sure that when you are cutting on the bench pin that your body is around chest height to the work and not down on the bottom table. Right handers cut towards the left and opposite for left handers.

5 Wax the length of wire with bees wax or use a cloth soaked with olive oil. Either one of these will do a good job. Place the tapered end of the wire into the hole selected in the draw plate. Most draw plates have a slight grooved dome at each hole. This is the end that you feed the wire through. As the wire is drawn through the plate it will back up slightly forming a slightly larger area of wire. Grip the end of the wire with spe- cially made tongs for draw plate use and pull through smoothly and evenly (no jerking). This drawing of the wire can only be done once and then you will need to re-anneal it. It is imperative that you do not jerk (stop & start) the wire as this causes the wire to harden which may very well break the wire. By successively using smaller holes, the 1.5mm wire can be reduced to very small diameter if required. MAKING THE JUMP RINGS - (All soldered Joints should be done with HARD SOLDER)

Determining Length of Wire and Chain Links Required for Bracelet: Lets say we are working with a length of 170mm as a bracelet. Our wire diameter is 1.2mm approx. after being drawn through the draw plate This wire will be wound on a 6mm former giving a 6mm inside diameter. The link should be as per (Fig 4).

The actual length of the link for measuring is 6mm (inside diameter). Therefore, 170mm bracelet divided by 6mm = 28 links. As we are going to be squeezing the end of 6.0 each link over a small mandrel, causing the link to be lengthened slightly - around 10%. This happens by forming the round link into an oval one (as will be explained later in 1.2 this article). Now 28 links minus 10% = 25 Links approx. 7.2 (Fig 4) Finished Link This equation above will give you some idea of how many links will be required for your bracelet. You can however, just make up as many rings as you like, link them together and place around your wrist (don’t forget to minus 10% to your length unless you want round rings only). Go figure.... You will be working with 3 mandrels to make your bracelet - 12mm, 6mm & 3mm.

Now some more maths for you - The actual length of wire required to make the 25 links is based on 2πR or πD (π being 3.143). So! By that formula we have 7.2 X 3.143 = 22.6mm. That makes each link 22.6mm long so by multiplying 22.6 by 25 links (22.6 X 25) = 565mm length of 1.2mm wire.

Easy Huh! Yeah right. This gives you an approximation of the amount of wire we need and can be used for any size wire you have at hand. Now is the time to anneal the wire if you haven’t already done so - With the 6mm mandrel, wind 12 coils (refer Fig5). You can wrap a piece of masking tape over the windings if you want too, to help keep them together or just leave them as they are - it’s up to you. Cut the end of the wire with a small pair of side cutters. Most mandrels will have a cutting guide at the end and is used for sawing off the rings one at a time. If not, slide the coils off the (Fig 5) Finished Windings mandrel and the we will use a pin board to cut the coils. Now comes the sawing - The saw must be lubricated with bees wax as silver can gall underneath the teeth and the sides of the blade causing bad cutting and blade breakages. Make sure that the blade is in correctly so that the cutting edge is facing downwards ( remember that the saw cuts on a downward stroke). Cut along the centre line of the coils using the pin board to produce the links required.

6 Take it very easy and slowly. Learn to relax while you are sawing - let the saw do the cutting and never try to force the cut as you do a hacksaw, as sure as God was a boy, the blade will brake. Go ahead and now cut the last 10 links. The links will now be perfectly circular and slightly apart as shown in (Fig 6). Clean all the links by placing them into a small jam jar which is 1/3 filled with clean shot and turpentine. Shake vigorously for a couple of minutes to re- move the wax and heavy burrs from the sawing process. Place all the cut links into a jar of (Fig 6) Cut Link water and detergent to wash off all the wax. Now place them into the pickling bath to clean any fire scale. NOTE provide adequate ventilation when heating as fumes from the sulphuric acid can cause se- vere irritation to the respiratory system. Wash in water with a little sodium bicarbonate added, and dry (keep a couple of spare links for the ends of the chain). It’s time to solder the first link one to start forming the chain. To close the link, the ends must always be moved sideways as the arrows show in diagram (Fig6). If you try to push links together you will loose the tension required to make a perfect match. My suggestions is for you to do a couple of links first, just to get the hang of it and then proceed to the next step.

Once the small split chain link has been closed together, that is both surfac- es of the cut link line up and are exact without any large gaps. Solder will not fill a large gap but will certainly fill small imperfections in the meets. Sol- dering is relatively easy, but is the most important part of all Silver Smithing.

(Fig 7) Soldering Hold the link by a pair of tweezers at the opposite end of the join or lie the link to be soldered over a small soldering block. Use Easyflo flux on the join and place a small snippet of hard solder on to it with a wire spike, Refer (Fig7). Heat the bottom of the chain link slowly first. This makes the metal expand and closes the link up so that the join is tighter. Continue to slowly heat until the flux starts to melt. This can be seen readily and quite often the solder snippet may move. This will require you to use your wire spike to adjust the snippet again. Con- tinue to heat and play the hottest part of the flame against the join. Remember that the solder will be drawn to the heat as it melts. So! Make sure that the heat is applied opposite to the snippet. The best way to do this is to place the snippet slightly on one side at the top. Then it is an easy matter to apply heat on the opposite side of the link. As the link gets hot it starts to turn a dull cherry red colour and you will see the solder suddenly disappear or flow into the joint. Stop the heat straight away as the link is now soldered. Drop the still hot soldered joint into a container of water to quench it. Now link in the next link and close the gap as you did with the other link. Solder as before and quench. Repeat the process for each link in turn, but do not pickle yet until all the links have been soldered. Now place the chain into the pickle bath for a couple of minutes until all of the fire scale has been re- moved (Remove from the pickling bath with COPPER TONGS only. Do not use steel or any other metal as electroplating will take place immediately). The chain should come out a nice milky white colour with no fire scale evident. Inspect all links for week soldered joints and redo if any are obvious. Now’s the time to clean all joints so they are smooth and have no burs or solder on them. This can be done with wet and dry paper and files.

7 Using the 2 to 3mm mandrel we now start to make the elongated links. To do this place the mandrel in- side the link, right up against the join. Make sure the other links are pushed out of the way. Using a pair of flat nose pliers, squeeze the link around the mandrel as in the (Fig 8). Repeat this process for the oth- er side of the link as well. After all the links have been shaped, the Trace Chain should be as shown below. We now need to check all the links for unsoldered joints. If any are found - redo

the link/s as previous. During the soldering and shaping op- eration some of, if not all the links will be a little bent or ir-

(Fig 8) Shaping the links regular shape. Straighten these up with the flat nose pliers. The chain links may have to be re-cleaned and sanded lightly to remove any plier marks. Heat up the pickling solution until quite warm, as the vapours from pickling acids can be quite severe to the respiratory system - TAKE CARE WHEN HANDLING Place your chain into the pickling bath for a minute or two to remove oxides and fire scale. Remove from the pickling bath with COPPER TONGS only. Do not use steel or any other metal as electroplating will take place immediately and cover the silver with a coating of copper. Rinse in running water and dry. Lightly sand your work with 400 to 600 grit silicon carbide paper. The easiest way to do this is to place a nail into the vice to form an anchor point for the chain. Slip a link over the nail or tie the chain to the nail with a piece of wire etc as shown (Fig 9). Run the wet and dry paper over the chain in both direc- tions. Turn the chain over on the nail and repeat the procedure. Don’t overdo the sanding as we are on- ly trying to remove a small amount of im- perfections on the metal. Next use very fi- ne No 000 or fine steel wool in the same way as you did with the carbide paper. The fine wool will burnish and polish the (Fig 9) links. Wash with detergent and water, then dry with a cloth or paper towelling. Making the fob chain ring. Using a 12mm former, wind one link of 1.2mm, and clean as before. Solder this link refer (Fig10). The 12mm ring will need to have 4 turns of 1.2mm wire wrapped around 4 points of the ring as per dia- gram below (Fig 11) and then soldered and cleaned as before. One of the small links you kept can now be soldered to the fob ring right against the soldered joint of the 12mm soldered ring as per below (Fig12). You need to Split end here take a little care here and make sure all the pieces are in the correct order as (Fig 10) (Fig 11) (Fig 12) discussed above. Remember you are using only hard soldered though you 12mm Link shouldn’t have any trouble as all the 4 turns 1.2mm Jump Ring Soldered wire wrapped onto the Fob joints should stay together. around 4 points & soldered 8 Making the Fob Chain Latch Bar & Joining to complete the Fob Chain:

Cut a piece of 2mm round silver wire 20mm long, clean and make sure it is (Fig 13) straight by using a pair of flat nose refer (Fig13). Clean and sand smooth. As we 2mm X 20mm did with the fob ring, we need to wind 4 turns of 1.2mm wire around each end (Fig 14) and solder as per (Fig 14). This should now be easy for you to do as it is a simple soldering exercise - Is It Not Soldered Loops OK! OK! All jokes aside. To finish the fob latch bar we will need one of those spare split links you have left over to be soldered into the middle of the latch as per (Fig 15). Make sure you solder the split end of the link onto the latch bar as we will be adding the chain (Fig 15) to both the fob ring and the fob latch bar as drawings (Fig 16 & 17).

(Fig 16) (Fig 17)

Place a split link through one end of the chain and through the fob chain latch bar refer (Fig 16). Solder the link and elongate the link as per page 7. Next do the same for the fob chain ring using a link on the other end of the chain refer (Fig 17). Place the bracelet into the Pickle bath until all oxides and flux have been dissolved - Dry and polish in the jewellery tumbler if you have one or use steelo OOO wool.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT - WELL DONE

9 MAKING THE PENDANT We are going to make a pendant from an oval agate cabochon. Basically we going to wrap a piece of bez- el ( a bezel is a thin piece of flat or similar metal that wraps around a stone) around the cabochon, solder, fit to a piece of plate, solder on a bail, fit the cab to the setting, roll over the bezel and polish. To save time the bezel is already supplied, but will require sanding/filing to achieve the correct height, as will be explained later. Using this piece of (Fig 18) bezel, wrap it around the cabochon and

mark. This will give you the correct size (Fig 19) for the cab - refer (Fig 18). Cut the bezel Wrapping Bezel around the stone for sizing and clean the edges so they are straight Solder snippet and match perfectly. Now Bend the bezel in together to form the oval of approximate shape of the cab and make sure the join is together and true. Flux the join and place a piece of solder on the join - refer (Fig 19) - Solder, quench, pickle, rinse and dry. Bezel showing join - soldering Before proceeding on further, we have to make sure that the bezel you have just done fits around the stone. Press the stone into the bezel so the bezel forms to the cab. If for some rea- son the cab is to large, it will have to be recut, soldered and cleaned. If the stone is too small, it can be made a little larger by hammering lightly against a steel mandrel (Fig 20) using a small planishing hammer - refer (Fig 20). This technique is also used to in- crease ring sizes by 1 to 2 sizes. As the metal is hammered it is made thinner and ex-

planishing with a hammer pands, which is why we can increase the diameter slightly to fit the cab. will expand the metal Our next step is to solder the formed bezel against a flat sheet of silver plate. Using the bench top or a piece of flat timber, place a piece of 400 grit silicone car- (Fig 21) bide paper on it. Proceed to sand the base of the bezel flat so it can mate to the silver plate - refer (Fig 21). Once this is done place the bezel onto the piece of flat sheet that is cut roughly to size. Make sure the sheet is flat after cutting to approx. size. Ham- mer lightly if necessary and sand flat. Check mating surfaces and re-do if sanding bezel to mate silver plate necessary. Flux the join and place small pieces of solder to the inside of the bezel as per (Fig 22), and solder the bezel to the sheet. You will see the sol- (Fig 22) der wicks its way around the bezel to form a complete join. Do not over- heat here as the bezel is very thin, play most of the heat to the plate first solder snippets soldering bezel to flat sheet as it is the largest and thickest piece. Quench, pickle, rinse and dry. Next trim the excess metal from the cab by cutting in sections around the perimeter as in (Fig 23). File the edges to form a neat finish that shows no sign of the join, and sand with 400/600 grit paper all over paying particular attention to the first bez- (Fig 23) el join to give a good finish. trim excess (Fig 24) file & sand Now fit the cabochon back into the unfinished pen- Cabochon dant and check the height of the stone compared to the bezel height The height of the bezel has to be enough so when it is rolled, the edge will mould over the taper height of bezel above part of the stone, thus holding the cab in place - refer (Fig 24). the taper of the stone

10 If the height is too high, which it can be, as we are using a 5mm bezel, then we have to file it down to the appropriate height. When you have the correct height as explained above, we then have to taper the edge of the bezel to make it easier to bend with a burnisher tool as per (Fig 24) previous page.

area shaded is sanded area So our next procedure will be to sand a blunt knife edge - refer (Fig 25). Its best to use a fine file and some 400 grit carbide paper here as the bezel is already relatively thin. Once this is finished we have only to solder on the bail. The bail can be a small jump ring or a small (Fig 26) piece of tapered flat sheet. The bail will be made out (Fig 25) of left over 1.2mm wire and formed into a taper. Cut sand to form a blunt knife edge two pieces of the wire 25mm long and form them half way around a 5mm mandrel (similar to forming a link). Using flat nose pliers forming the bail - 2 required refer (Fig 26), form a ‘V’ Ring or tear drop shape. These now have to be filed flat, straight across the points to form a flat surface for soldering. Make sure that the ends do meet with no gaps.

(Fig 27) Solder these two links together using hard solder to form a very narrow ‘V’, looking

links soldered together from the top of the links as shown in (Fig 27). to form a narrow ‘V’ Next step is to solder the bail onto (Fig 28) the bezel. Make sure that the bail is soldered right at the bottom of bezel as shown - Use medium solder here bail closer to the bottom to allow Refer (Fig 28). for bending of bezel over the cab Polish the Bezel Ready for Burnishing: Fit the stone to the bezel and carefully begin using

(Fig 29) the burnishing tool - refer (Fig 29). This is done by (Fig 30) burnishing tool - curved rubbing back and forth all around the stone refer (Fig 30). Do not overdo the pressure as rippling may result. You need to form the slowly rub back & forth around metal gradually to make metal/stone contact. the stone Pay particular attention near the joins and where the bail is soldered. This is the place where the metal may be harder because of the extra thickness of metal due to the soldering and/or small amount of ma- terial height to bend near the bail.

When burnishing is complete - Polish with rouge and fit chain

You have successfully completed a piece of fine jewellery Basic Silver Smithing

11 As promised - How to Make Wire Hold Downs These can be considered as one of the best pieces of accessories you can have - They are brilliant and can be classed as a third hand or maybe even 6 hands, whatever! Hold downs can be made from any type of wire. I use 8, 10 and 12 gauge fencing wire as it is quite stiff and resilient to heat. Stainless Steel would make a good alternative, but I find steel better as it rusts at the end and therefore solder will not stick to it. Lets make a 150mm long one - Cut a piece of fencing wire 225mm long and straighten it out. Cut another piece 75mm long Mark up 75 mm on the long piece of wire and then bend it outward 45° thereabouts. Bend the small piece at one end about 6mm down from the tip at 45° and then place along the side of the other and braze together or silver solder. The diagram shows the way it all comes together. As per the photo graphs below bend the support to produce a loop as shown. It would pay to form a point on the end of the support as I have done as this makes a big difference to holding pieces together whilst soldering. If you require more weight to hold baskets etc onto a setting just add a large nut (or lead) to give more holding power - as shown below in the photo. You can make these any size you like

Loop as required Silver Solder or Braze Together

Large Nut

Short leg butted up to the other

Support

150mm

OH WOW!!!!

This is aw some - Home made third hands

12