Question - Making 925 Jewelry

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kurtak

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 16, 2014
Messages
3,788
Location
John Day Oregon
High All

First of all I want to say I am sorry that since I made my moved from Wisconsin to Oregon I have just been to busy settling in to my new home here in Oregon to post on the forum like I used to :( --- however I do log in to the forum "everyday" to read the latest & greatest discussions taking place here 8) :mrgreen:

That said - one of the things I have been working on here at my new home is making sterling silver Jewelry out of my stash of 925

Part of the process in making the jewelry is annealing the 925 (the larger pieces like rings' bracelet's etc.) in order to make the bends &/or stamp designs in it

In the annealing process the heat brings a black copper oxide (fire scale) to the surface which is eliminated with dilute sulfuric acid pickling - after removing the fire scale I am left with a dull "silver" surface - which is then buffed out to a "high" mirror shine with my bench buffers - so no problems with cleaning up the larger pieces

However - when making small pieces such as ear rings, pendants or attaching clasp's to chains I run into the same problem of fire scale followed by the "dull" silver after pickling in the dilute sulfuric as a result of soldering things like jump rings when attaching a clasp to a chain or a post to an ear ring

The problem is that these pieces are just to small &/or fragile to buff out to the high mirror shine with a high speed bench buffer

So the question is --- how do the professional jewelers get the mirror finish back to the silver after soldering these "small" pieces

I have attached a pic which is not the best due to lighting - but as you can see the piece on the top left has such a mirror finish it glares from the lighting after buffing while the piece on the right has the dull silver color after pickling but before buffing - the same with the jump rings - the three on the left that have not been soldered have a high shine - while the ones on the right are dull after soldering & then pickling to remove the fire scale

I still love this forum & the members I have come to know over the years as valued friends - I just don't (at this time) have time to post like I used to

Kurt
 

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You could also tumble them with a fine medium made for the purpose.

Or do like my late father in law did with used brass shells from the firing range, tumble them in sawdust and wood shavings. After a few hours they came out so shiny they looked better than new ones.
 
Kurt you can use a barrel with stainless shot of varying sizes and shapes to get the first finish and then hand polish to finish, also as you have a fumehood I assume you could use cyanide and peroxide to strip the fire scale as I believe it gives a much better finish.
 
Anything you have even needed to know about soldering, firescale, and fire burn.

http://www.nancylthamilton.com/techniques/soldering/oxidation-flux-and-fire-scale/
 
We do some silverwork as well, and are all to familiar with firescale.
 

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Kurt, There is a eating joint here that has some very unique items made from stainless that you might be interested in making as well. Next time I am over that way I will get some pictures of them. Making similar items in silver plate or even sterling would be very impressive.
 
nickvc said:
Kurt you can use a barrel with stainless shot of varying sizes and shapes to get the first finish and then hand polish to finish, also as you have a fumehood I assume you could use cyanide and peroxide to strip the fire scale as I believe it gives a much better finish.

I used this method. I would sand the surface to 600 grit, then tumble with a cutting compound in walnut shell (we called it white diamond)...then I'd polish big stuff or tumble with variable shape stainless shot. It basically just polishes by pounding the surface millions of times with really light impacts. Finally, red rouge was used with a cloth wheel on the assembled item.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
This forum might be good on many things, but for jewellery I would turn to https://www.ganoksin.com

For example this page...
https://www.ganoksin.com/topic/jewelry-making/surface-manipulation/tumbling/

Göran
 
Hi all

Sorry for such a long delay on getting back to this thread :( --- but at first after reading the replies I received I ended up spending a few days reading the links provided by silversadlle1 & Goran - along with additional searches and as well watching You Tube silver smithing videos - & I have to say - watching YT videos on silver smithing is kind of like watching YT videos on gold refining --- you have to sort through a whole LOT of CRAP to find a FEW really good informative ones

And then of course I had to spend some time playing around with the different ideas/methods - & then I had to get busy making stuff up for my first showing (which is tomorrow at a local craft show) including making up my display

The results of what my friends here on the forum (along with other research) are as follows

I went out & bought a vibrator type tumbler with corn cob media which worked well on the small items like ear rings - however - with chains they ended up getting tangled up which I kind of expected (so on the first run I used some old scrap chains to see if they would tangle or not)

So the fire scale problem on the chain ends (about an inch to inch & half) resulting in soldering the jump rings to the chain ends I ended up using Dave's idea being I already have a couple variable speed dremels --- the trick to that was figuring out a way to stretch the chain end out & hold it in place so it didn't flop around

Anyway - here are some pics of my final efforts which will be going on display for my first showing/sales tomorrow :D

Kurt
 

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Best of luck Kurt your stock looks good to me and I had a jewellery shop and sold a lot of individual silver pieces.
 
Looks really nice Kurt! Now it is obvious why you have been so quiet on the forum lately. That looks like tedious and very time consuming work.
So where did you get to show off your efforts?
It's good to see that you are doing something that might lead you back to the forum once in awhile. We kind of missed your input lately.
Good luck in your new venture.
Dennis
 
Sold $510 worth stuff at the first showing

I kept track of the actual weight of the items sold

So - the silver - based on 925 - at silver spot = $115.62

The table cost $25

So - although not great - I feel I did ok considering John Day only has a population of 1,744 & the fact that John Day is the biggest town of the 9 towns in the entire county (John Day has the one & only stop "light" in the county) :lol:

Based on the traffic I would say out of every 10 that looked - 1 or 2 bought something - & others liked what they saw enough to take a business cards

With summer on the way there are more such craft shows coming up - so we will see

Kurt
 
Kurt, that's really great! Back in my earliest jewelry making days, I did a lot of shows. There were a few times that I struggled to cover my booth fee and travel expenses. Great result for your first show.

Did you sell any of the silver crystals, or was it all jewelry? You might want to look into buying some of the small glass vials that you can put a nice crystal into, seal the top, then hang it from a chain. Search jewelry vial on feePay.

If things take off for you, you might also want to look into an electric soldering machine. You can buy them, but I built one many years ago for a different hobby. I don't mean a soldering iron. The soldering machine uses a pretty stout transformer to output 12 V DC. The contacts are placed on either side of the joint you're trying to solder. When power is applied, the part heats up FAST and melts the solder. By fast, I mean a second or two on small parts. Because you're "in and out" so fast, the oxidation is very limited, so it should save polishing time. You can also use it at the shows if someone wants a chain shortened. A lot of shows won't permit the use of torches for safety reasons, but a soldering machine will probably be allowed.

If you're interested, I'll try to find mine out in the barn to give you a better idea.

Dave
 
I like the jewelry. I used to use flatware as shape donors. You should check out Kevin Potters line of presses. Same idea as the bonny doone presses. Pretty neat stuff.

I like that you are using sterling. So many of the flatware jewelry just uses plated ware, and SO MANY WOMEN can't wear anything that's plated. Always use silver french wires and ear studs and you'll sell so much more. I cannot tell you how many times I've heard from women "I love wearing earrings, but it's so hard to find cute jewelry that's affordable but has silver studs".

If you don't already have one, using Square or Paypal for credit card vendors increases your sales considerably as well.
 
FrugalRefiner said:
Kurt, that's really great! Back in my earliest jewelry making days, I did a lot of shows. There were a few times that I struggled to cover my booth fee and travel expenses. Great result for your first show.

Did you sell any of the silver crystals, or was it all jewelry? You might want to look into buying some of the small glass vials that you can put a nice crystal into, seal the top, then hang it from a chain. Search jewelry vial on feePay.

If things take off for you, you might also want to look into an electric soldering machine. You can buy them, but I built one many years ago for a different hobby. I don't mean a soldering iron. The soldering machine uses a pretty stout transformer to output 12 V DC. The contacts are placed on either side of the joint you're trying to solder. When power is applied, the part heats up FAST and melts the solder. By fast, I mean a second or two on small parts. Because you're "in and out" so fast, the oxidation is very limited, so it should save polishing time. You can also use it at the shows if someone wants a chain shortened. A lot of shows won't permit the use of torches for safety reasons, but a soldering machine will probably be allowed.

If you're interested, I'll try to find mine out in the barn to give you a better idea.

Dave

I would be interested in it as well.
 
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