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Alloying sterling silver?
Hi!
I've just tried [unsuccessfully] to alloy some sterling silver for the first time. Seems like it should be easy right? Melted 31.1g of fine silver with 2.5g of 99.95 pure copper (I analyzed it at work). Both metals were cleaned in acid then washed off in water first. I'm using a propane / O2 torch and stirred the heck out of the molten metal with a quartz rod..... Poured it into some water to make some grains and lo-and-behold.... I got a mess! The copper and silver separate into a un-homogenous clump. I tried several times to get it to blend but it's being very stubborn. Any help on the topic would be much appreciated. Thanks! Dave B. |
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#2
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Try using flux.
-- Don Thompson "The only stupid questions are those that should have been asked, but weren't, or those that have been asked and answered over and over, but the answers not listened to." Peter Rowe "Vanessa Boscia" wrote in message ... Hi! I've just tried [unsuccessfully] to alloy some sterling silver for the first time. Seems like it should be easy right? Melted 31.1g of fine silver with 2.5g of 99.95 pure copper (I analyzed it at work). Both metals were cleaned in acid then washed off in water first. I'm using a propane / O2 torch and stirred the heck out of the molten metal with a quartz rod..... Poured it into some water to make some grains and lo-and-behold.... I got a mess! The copper and silver separate into a un-homogenous clump. I tried several times to get it to blend but it's being very stubborn. Any help on the topic would be much appreciated. Thanks! Dave B. |
#3
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On Fri, 19 Mar 2004 03:29:57 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry "Vanessa Boscia"
wrote: I'm using a propane / O2 torch and stirred the heck out of the molten metal with a quartz rod..... Poured it into some water to make some grains and lo-and-behold.... I got a mess! The copper and silver separate into a un-homogenous clump. As Don says in another post, use some flux. In this case, either just boric acid, or a mix of borax and boric acid powders added to the melting metal will help a lot. However, I suspect that your metal is better mixed than you thing. Often what happens is a coppery appearance on the grains caused by copper oxide forming on the grain surface, then reducing as it his the water, or being sufficiently dissolved again so just a slight film of copper coloring can be left on the surface. You may find that if you pickle your grain, then put it in a tumbler to just tumble against itself (no tumbling media needed), that it will look a lot more as it should when you're done. Remember to pour from enough of a height, and into a deep enough container of water (usually takes at least a foot deep, and more than that is better) to get fully discrete grains instead of a flused lump on the bottom of the container. In melting at first, start with the copper with just about it's own volume of silver, and melt these together. Then add the rest of the silver and melt them together. Copper melts enough higher than silver that it might otherwise be hard o get it to fully melt, and in that case, you might then still have seperate copper areas. But if you've fully melted both the copper and silver, they won't seperate out again when you pour. It can look that way, but this is just surface discoloration, not an indication of the actual alloy composition of the grains. Peter |
#4
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Peter,
You hit that on the nose. I pickled the silver for a few hours and sure enough it looks fine. Thanks for the tips on making grains also. Appreciate it. Dave B. "Peter W. Rowe" pwrowe@ixDOTnetcomDOTcom wrote in message ... On Fri, 19 Mar 2004 03:29:57 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry "Vanessa Boscia" wrote: I'm using a propane / O2 torch and stirred the heck out of the molten metal with a quartz rod..... Poured it into some water to make some grains and lo-and-behold.... I got a mess! The copper and silver separate into a un-homogenous clump. As Don says in another post, use some flux. In this case, either just boric acid, or a mix of borax and boric acid powders added to the melting metal will help a lot. However, I suspect that your metal is better mixed than you thing. Often what happens is a coppery appearance on the grains caused by copper oxide forming on the grain surface, then reducing as it his the water, or being sufficiently dissolved again so just a slight film of copper coloring can be left on the surface. You may find that if you pickle your grain, then put it in a tumbler to just tumble against itself (no tumbling media needed), that it will look a lot more as it should when you're done. Remember to pour from enough of a height, and into a deep enough container of water (usually takes at least a foot deep, and more than that is better) to get fully discrete grains instead of a flused lump on the bottom of the container. In melting at first, start with the copper with just about it's own volume of silver, and melt these together. Then add the rest of the silver and melt them together. Copper melts enough higher than silver that it might otherwise be hard o get it to fully melt, and in that case, you might then still have seperate copper areas. But if you've fully melted both the copper and silver, they won't seperate out again when you pour. It can look that way, but this is just surface discoloration, not an indication of the actual alloy composition of the grains. Peter |
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On , in rec.crafts.jewelry "Vanessa Boscia"
wrote: Peter, You hit that on the nose. I pickled the silver for a few hours and sure enough it looks fine. Thanks for the tips on making grains also. Appreciate it. Dave B. You're welcome, Dave. Glad it worked. Peter |
#6
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Vanessa Boscia wrote:
Hi! I've just tried [unsuccessfully] to alloy some sterling silver for the first time. Seems like it should be easy right? Melted 31.1g of fine silver with 2.5g of 99.95 pure copper (I analyzed it at work). Both metals were cleaned in acid then washed off in water first. I'm using a propane / O2 torch and stirred the heck out of the molten metal with a quartz rod..... Poured it into some water to make some grains and lo-and-behold.... I got a mess! The copper and silver separate into a un-homogenous clump. I tried several times to get it to blend but it's being very stubborn. Any help on the topic would be much appreciated. Thanks! Dave B. It is almost impossible to make a good silver alloy in the goldsmith's shop. Even remelting silver scrap and expecting a good clean bar is beyond the possibilities of the "normal" goldsmith's shop. Take a look at this page I created to explain this. http://www.abrasha.com/misc/silver_alloy.htm I think it explains my above statement very clearly. Abrasha http://www.abrasha.com |
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