Man Jewelry Chain
Q.I'm very much a beginner in silversmithing. I think to practice soldering I will make a chain. The book I have suggests using steel shot to debur teh links before soldering and using a tumbler with the same shot to polish the finished chain. I've got enough to buy without the expense of a tumbler, so I'd like to hear about alternative methods. I assume I can debur the liks with a needle file, but how do I polish a fished chain?
A.To make it as easy as we can,ensure you dont damage the metal surface. 1.Polish your wire as soon as you get it from your silver dealer to do this hold one end in a bench vice the other end in a pair of pliers use any metal polish like Brasso or silvo on a rag to do this. , stretch tight and rub back and forth. 2;. Before you wind it onto your mandrel, polish the mandrel. 3. Cut off your individual rings with a jewellers piercing saw supporting the coil on the mandrel and moving the coil up one each time you cut one off. If your careful you wont get any burrs. Cut from the top of the coil.. 4. Use polished inside of the jaws pliers to set the rings true to make up the chain. you only need to open every alternate one to put in the already 2 closed ones. 5. Use plenty of flux to cover all the silver surface to prevent fire stain and solder up on a charcoal block not a ceramic one as that will scratch the silver. 6.Boil gently in water to deflux. 7.get a piece of 2 by 1in softwood. as long as your chain plus say 6 in 8. Take a wood saw and cut a groove down the middle wide enough to take the chain link width. 9. drive a 1in nail into the groove say 2in from one end of your wood at an angle . cut off the head with some nips and put one end of the chain over this nail. put a loop of string through the other end of the chain and stretch tight and tie off throgh a hole in the other end of the wood or over another nail. 10. now you have set you chain onto a safe and proper support you can eiither take a soft polishing brush with your prefered compound there on and brush up an down till your satisfied with the finish. Rotate the chasin in the grove to polish all the sides.
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