Silversmithing, The Joy of Silver Ring Making
Silver Ring Made by the Author
Credit: Picture by the AuthorBracelet Made by the Author
This is a braclet I made.
Credit: Picture owned and made by the AuthorIs silver necessary
I could have called this metal smithing, or even copper smithing, as any metal smithing in making jewelry has its own joys and rewards. However, I find the most joy personally in working with silver. In jewelry making you very seldom find really good looking copper jewelry, but silver - now there is a metal! It also is far less expensive than gold, and if you end up messing up a piece of silver the damage in dollars is far less. Silversmiths have all begun learning with copper and graduated to silver. A silversmith can be anyone from any culture. I am living in the west, and Navajo silversmiths are famous for their creations in the area I am from.
Be Careful and Practice with Copper First
Because silver is beginning to increase in value just as gold has, it is advisable to practice on a less expensive metal such as copper. First take a small half inch square of copper and simply melt it down to liquid. "Stop!" You may be shouting, you haven't told me how to melt it down. I will, but for this first part of the article let me just say what you should do to practice once I show you some of the things you need to safely melt metal or better yet, bring it to the point just before it melts.
So, practice by melting the copper, notice how it looks just before it melts and what it looks like as it starts to melt, you will get a feel by eyesight of just when to stop when using heat on this metal. Copper melts at a higher temperature than silver, so while first practicing you will be able to solder the copper easier and have less of a chance of accidentally melting it. Once you can make a ring (in this case a simple wedding band type circle ring) by soldering the two ends together using copper solder (preferably a low heat copper solder, without melting the copper, you have begun to develop a skill.
Using Silver
After a few more copper rings, you are ready to try working with silver. Again, take a small piece of silver and melt it to liquid. Notice what it looks like in the heat just before it melts, and as it is melting and get a "feel" for how far you can take and heat silver before you loose you project in a melt down. Make the same simple wedding band ring by using a low heat silver solder and practice, practice, and practice.
Making Your First Ring: Tools and Materials
You will need some silver half round wire from a jewelry or silver supply shop. Google for the nearest to you. You can go in person and see the differences in size and chose the best one for you first ring. For this first project buy about three times what you would need of the length, you may have some accidental melt downs. You can also purchase the same thing in copper for you initial practice metal, same amount applies for the very same reasons. Buy about a foot of silver solder low heat and copper solder low heat, a little jar of soldering flux paste, and a small jar of boric acid powder.
Other tools you will need would be a long set of tweezers to remove your work from the boric acid, and any decent supply store will be able to show you some. Long nose pliers, and a ring mandrel to size the ring, and a raw hide mallet for beating the metal, and shears to cut metal with, and a used toothbrush. You will need a fire brick, the kind that lines fireplaces, they can be purchased from specialty brick companies and silver smithing supply shops, you will also need a ceramic square to put on top of the brick, again a silversmithing supply store. From the same supplier get two round small jewelry files, a medium and a fine. If your budget allows at the time, find out about polishing wheels and you will need 4 polishing pads, one for each of the polishing grains. You need a round, medium, fine, and zam. Usually white, red, and yellow plus the zam. The silversmithing shop will know what you are describing to them.
You will also need a propane torch, a small one like a plumber might use to solder a copper pipe under your sink. Home Depot and Lowe's both carry these, the torch fits on top of a long hand held propane bottle. You will also need the full propane bottle.
So What Do You Do
With safety glasses on, put some of the boric acid crystals in a glass jar to make a liquid boric acid, follow instructions on boric acid container. Put your brick on your work bench and the ceramic square on top of it. Put you torch on your propane bottle. Have your mallet, plier, and tweezers on hand and ready for use.
The following directions apply to both silver or copper. Heat a small piece of the metal wire until it melts. Remember what I said already in this article about learning what your metals look like under heat.
First cut a piece to make a ring, cut it slightly larger than you will need. Next heat the metal but do not melt the metal, quickly take the metal with you long tweezers and drop into the boric acid for a moment. The acid should cover the entire metal. Remove and flatten out with your mallet. This will help make the metal more malleable as you work with it. Now carefully wrap the metal around your ring mandrel at the proper line for your ring size. Cut with a metal cutter to exact size.
where the two ends meet on the ring take a small artists paint with numbers kind of paint brush and apply the solder flux paste to both ends. Make sure your ring is then closed as tight as it can get butted to each end.
The next part is to take your metal solder low heat to match your metal, copper to copper or silver to silver. Light your torch get a pencil beam on it, and heat up the joint where the flux is. Remember the solder when it melts will melt at a lower temperature than the metal you are trying to join. On your ceramic insulator the ring joint is being heat, take in the other hand the solder wire and place an end of it on the joint of the metal, when you get the metal hot enough and the flux had bubbled and melted down in the heat, the solder will melt and flow into the joint binding the two ends together. Remember while you are doing all this to be still wearing your safety glasses! Once the solder has melted into the joint stop heating, take your tweezers and drop the ring into the boric acid mix and leave for a few minutes. This will help remove a some of the "crust" or oxidation on the metal. Remove from acid with tweezers and wash completely off in cold water. You can use an old toothbrush to help clean it off.
You now have the beginnings of a ring. Your next steps will be to take a rough and then a fine small round metal file and file the soldered joint until it is smooth and you don't see the joint. Wash again, and you are ready to begin polishing it with your polishing wheels. Start with the rough and after each polishing so that you do not contaminate your next finer polishing pad each time wash the metal with soap and warm water and scrub with the toothbrush. Finally the last polish is the zam it it will really give your metal a shine! When you are finished with the zam polishing, again wash with soap and water, dry and you have your first ring completed! (I have commented more on this subject on my blog, The Writer Guy.) With your first ring you have become a silversmith and are ready to learn even more about silver ring making.
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Comments
This sounds like it could be a good hobby to learn. And of course make money by selling what you make. There are so many old traditional trades and crafts dying out as people lose interest.
Although craft making is definitely coming back in some fields.
Thank you Eileen for your geneerous comments.
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