Silver Smithing Tools
The Tools
The Uses Of The Tools
This gas burner runs on lighter fluid and can reach temperatures of 120 degrees Celsius. I use this tool for silver soldering jewelry. But it is also used for heating up metal to prevent it from becoming metal hard. This comes from when a metal is overworked it becomes brittle. But by heating it up and quenching it allows the metal to continue to be bent.
Gass Burner
Flux
Fluxes are a very important chemical for soldering. Without the use of flux, it would not be possible to get a strong soldier between the two bits of metal. The flux melts at a lower temperature than the solder and Queen the metal removing the oxides. This clean surface then allows the solder to melt and join the two bits of metal together. Type of flux I use is a powder that you mix with water to make a paste. But flux comes in many different types including powder water and a pre-made combination of flux and solder.
Bezel Strip Wire
Bezel strip wire is a thin band of silver wire.it is used to wrap around the circumference of stones and then be molded to the shape of the stone to hold it in place. By doing this you encapsulate the stone and hold it in place and can make a necklace from this by adding a jump ring. Traditionally you word add a silver faceplate and solder the bezel wire onto it creating pendant.
Solder
This is silver solder. The difference is ordinary salt that is used electric melts at a much lower temperature and is a lot weaker. This solder I'm using is designed for silverwork and has a mix of silver, copper, and Zink. The melting point of this solder is much greater than that of electricians solder. It is more commonly referred to as hard solder. In the use of large jewelry pieces where you have several different joints. You would buy three different grades of solder each of the different melting points so that you can make each joint without melting the previous one. The solder comes in many different forms the ones I have a pre-cut little square but more commonly can be bought as a wire or a plate that you cut up yourself.
Smiths Littel Torch
Smiths little torch is different to a gas burner. The gas burner above Burns butane lighter fluid and uses natural air, this produces a flame that can reaching temperatures around 600 to 800 degrees c ish. Instead this torch can burn any gas, I use bottled propane and a oxygen generator (a mechanism that extract oxygen from the air making pure oxygen around 90 to 98%). The combination of both oxygen and gas can produce a lot of strong flame depending on the tip used. The torch can reach temperatures of 1000 to 1300 degrees Celsius or thereabouts. There are several tips meaning you can get range of flame types from a very small fine flame that can be used for soldering or a larger flame at hotter temperatures this can be good for annealing. There is an additional type of tip called a rosebud tip, instead of one hole for the gas to burn there are several holes, this tip can produce a much larger and hotter flame than the others and can be used for melting larger amounts of metal for casting. This tip is also positioned further away from the torch so that the heat coming off of the metal does not burn your hands.
Burnisher tool
The burnishing tool is what is used for smoothing the bezel wire down around the stone. It is a hard smooth surface that can easily form the silver as it is a lot harder.
Self Closing Tweezers
Theas tweezers are kept perinatally closed and by squeezing the prongs they open. Theas are brilliant for soldering as they can hold things in place, they are also good for moving things in the flame.
Diamond Bur
These burs are used for a process called a flush set diamond. This bur is used to remove material, the shape it removes is in the shape of a diamond. So that when the diamond is placed in the hole the metal holds it perfectly. To save the bur the location is drilled out first, then a round bur is used to remove most of the material first. Then the diamond bur can be used to form the diamond shape. Then using a burnishing tool pressing down on the metal around the top of the diamond. By doing this the metal slightly folds over the edge of the diamond holding it in place.
Saw
For cutting metal a very fine saw is needed. There are may difrent grades of saw blades each is used for a difrent thickness of metal. The saw itself can be adjusted to accommodate difrent sizes of blades. Wax is used to prevent the blade getting clogged up with waist material, by lubricating the proses it prevents the blade from snapping.
Fiel
This is a very simple large file for removing lots of material. You can also get smaller files in many different shapes theas are called needle files.
Clamp
This makes it easier to hold rings while working on fine decorations on the ring.
Soldering Stand
This holds onto paces of work while there getting soldered. This can be moved into many difrent positions this enables you to hold the peace you are soldering in the exact position that you need.
Iron Casting Block
This is used for casting either rods of varying thicknesses or flat bars of around 5 mm thick. To use this to cast you need to heat up the iron block otherwise the metal won't fall down into the mould.
Crucible
A crucible is used for melting down metals. They are made from some kind of porcelain and can withstand high temperatures. Fluxes is used on top of the metal to remove impurities.
Charcol Block
I use a charcoal block for soldering on. They're good for this as the charcoal reflects the heat back into the piece. This is compared to a ceramic block which will absorb the heat which is useful if you're wanting to heat the whole piece evenly instead of heating just one part.
Pickel
Pickle is a chemical solution that cleans the excess flux and discoloration from silver. After soldering place the silver piece in the pickle solution and leave it for around 10 minutes. The solution works best if its heated. As the pickle solution is a hazardous chemical once the solution loses its effectiveness, bicarbonate of soda should be added to neutralise the solution. Copper or plastic tweezers are used to remove pieces as iron can contaminate the solution. This only works to clean silver products. If you are wanting to make something out of copper and use silver solder for the joint you can purposely contaminate the pickle solution with iron and place your copper in the pickle solution, this will make the whole piece look like a solid peace copper.
Bench Bord
You can buy commercial versions of this but I have made my own. Any board is customisable to your needs. They are predominantly used for cutting as the two 2 parts jutting out on either side support the peace while you cut down the centre in the v-shaped area. Most pieces are made on this board as they are the centre to any silversmiths bench.
Storage Draws
I have made these storage drawers to hold the majority of my tools I have customised them to my needs, so that all my tools are organised.
Lighter
This is a simple lighter used for lighting a gas torch. A traditional lighter is advised against for this purpose. This device uses a flint to create a spark that will light the torch. There are electric alternatives that can be used.
Safty Glasses
I use the safety glasses when melting large amounts of metal. This is predominantly to protect my eyes from the infrared / bright colour of the metal. These glasses still allow me to see what I'm doing but without the blinding light of the molten metal.
Metal Hole Punch
This is a simple way of cutting holes in metal there are two different sizes available.
Pendant Drill
This is like a traditionally rotary drill (AKA Dremel) but hear the motor and handpiece are separate, this gives you a smaller hand piece to hold onto and therefore gives you a greater control. This tool is also controlled by a foot pedal so gives you a better control over the speed.
Sand Paper
This sandpaper has a range from 120 to 5000 grit this allows for a perfect finish, by using gradually higher grits you can create an almost mirror finish. All that's required is a quick polish afterwards with the pendant drill.
Sanding Sticks
Sanding sticks are convenient for making quick adjustments to pieces by removing small amounts of material. They are almost the next level down from a file. They allow you to have a great deal of control as they are stiff like a file compared to sandpaper wich would bend and requires a lot of pressure.