Braided Jewelry Making Wire.
Q.I'm a total novice when it comes to jewelry making, but I have long wanted to make an "ear cuff" for myself out of gold. Can someone recommend a good place to get gold wire and solder that is suitable for working with it? Also, will a regular soldering iron work on the special solder, or would I have to get a different one?
A.I'm in UK so I can't help with a location for buying gold wire, but I can certainly tell you that you'll never solder gold with a soldering iron. There is nothing to stop you from soldering gold with lead/tin solder, but no jeweller would ever do it 'cos its unsightly, very weak, and very difficult to remove properly if you ever want to do the job properly. If you try to hard solder gold or silver that has previously been softsoldered the molten lead reacts with the gold or silver and eats into it rather like mercury attacks gold or silver to make an amalgam. The gold solder used in jewelry is a gold alloy that has a slightly lower melting point than the gold you are soldering. It is nothing like lead solder that you use a soldering iron with. Gold soldering is the same as silver soldering or brazing - its melting point is around 700 degrees C. You will need a propane or butane torch and some hard solder flux to do the job, and some 10% sulphic acid to remove the oxides afterwards. If you have never done hard soldering before, I would recommend you to practise on copper first 'cos it is _very_ easy to overheat small items and melt the thing you are trying to solder. The process is not difficult, but it is not something you will be able to do without any prior experience. I would advise you to get a book from the local library and study it well before attempting to solder gold 'cos mistakes can be costly.
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