Thanks Rich and Don, We'll look into both.

Jake

Harris 0 rods are supposed to be an great color match for copper.

Walker

I use the Harris 0 phos-copper rod the oxy-weld very thin copper. I is tricky, but it works well and takes patinas. Here's a picture of the copper Copper Restoration Project- "THE SICK DAYS OF SUMMER"piece I'm restoring.

What is "blue" pickle? Can I make it using Citric acid pickle solution?

Sorry to be so slow to answer this. I think it does not matter what the pickle is. I have used Sparex and Phdown (swimming pool chemical) which is a more pure form of Sparex. After the pickle has been used for a while even if just for silver, the liquid becomes blue from the dissolved copper. This is the copper that plates out onto silver.

Now if you are working silver and you put the silver into the pickle and in a moment of forgetfulness, pick it out with steel tweezers, you will copper plate the silver and you do not like that. In this case, put enough of the same pickle into a container to cover the silver piece. Add a glug glug of drug store hydrogen peroxide. This makes a short lived pickle that will remove the pick coloring without you needing to sand it off.

what is it?

When you use the copper solder please post how it came out. I am new to soldering and am very interested in doing copper poeces.
Thnaks

I am also beginning to experiment in copper jewelry. Right now I am just using copper wire to make jewelry, but want to learn to solder. My husband bought me a 750 degree electric solder, but I have no idea how to use it. Do you need to take a course in metalsmithing? Will an electric solder get hot enought to use with copper? If anyone out there knows, please post. Thanks, Susan

Susan,

You can solder copper with an electric soldering gun or iron, but only with soft solder. Soft solder is primarily made of tin and/or lead, with various alloying elements added. It will hold things together, but it does not have near the strength of the high-temperature solders generally used for copper, silver and gold jewelry. These so-called "hard" solders melt at temperatures between about 1100 degrees and 1600 degrees (Fahrenheit) and a fuel gas torch is generally used to do the soldering.

If you are working primarily with wire, sof solder will most likely not have enough strength to keep the wires together, due to the limited contact surface area.

I strongly suggest you obtain and study one of the good books available on the subject of jewelry making and metalsmithing. I highly recommend Oppi Untracht's "Metal Techniques for Craftsmen". It is not, however, inexpensive. You can often find used copies of RObert Von Neumann's "Jewelry Making" pretty cheaply, as it is a commonly used textbook for introductory metalsmithing courses in colleges. These are only a couple; there are a dozen or more that are worth reading and that will give you some of he background information you need in order progress in this endeavor.

Good luck with it and keep us posted on your progress.

You will need to learn to use a jeweler's torch to work with thin copper

I am trying to find copper solder as I was making a piece with eagle' beak and pushing the copper with a repousse work to push the beak out and I went through so the beak has a hole. So I am trying to find copper solder to fix the pendant. Thank you

I saw your blog (this is my FIRST TIME ON IT) on ArtMetal about getting copper solder on ebay. That was quite a while ago so I'm wondering if you've used it by now and how it worked. Could you PLEASE email me at nanajoyce@q.com. I have had so much trouble navigating ArtMetal web site (maybe because I'm 70?). Would appreciate knowing how that worked out for you as silver and gold is soooooooooooo expensive now. Thanks so much.

I have been using the rawtreasures copper solder and have been very happy with it, too.
Jenny

Hi Jenny
I was just surfing the internet looking for some information on soldering with Raw-Treasures Copper Solder. I am trying to solder some copper 19g jump-rings together. I have never soldered anything with other than with low temp. solder.

I am using just a hardware store torch and the end result was Raw-Treasures Copper Solder just balled up on the jump-ring and did not flow at all, similar to a cold joint with low temp. solder.

I am not sure about the flux if there is any in the solder at all or it has to be added. There also could be a anti-tarnish coating on those jump-rings, but I would thought the torch would handled that. If either if these are a problem what would be the best way to handle them?
Bob

Bob,

You need to have the metal clean, that is, freshly sanded or scoured with pumice to remove al loxides and then you need to use flux. I like Battern's Self Pickling Flux, or Handy and Harmon's HandyFlux. Some borax dissolved in water to make a paste will also work.

Rich thanks for the help.
Bob

Bob,

You're very welcome! I got interrupted on that last post and neglected to mention a thing or two.

For homemade flux, I use a mixture of 2 parts borax to one part boric acid dissolved in boiling water to make a thick paste. Once the mixture has cooled to near room temperature I think it to the consistency of cream by adding alcohol. A couple of drops of wetting agent like Ket Dry (sold for electric dishwashers) or Kodak Photo-Flo will help the flux to flow out on the work.

I also heat the wire solder and dip it in the flux to coat it so it doesn't oxidize when it gets heated. Then just heat the parts to be soldered and when they get to a bright red bring the solder to the joint and it should soon flow into the joint nicely.

The borax/boric acid fluxes leave a glassy residue on the surface of the work after soldering. This can be removed by boiling in water for several minutes and then scrubing with a brush.

Rich

Would it be possible to fuse flat sheets of copper together at the edges , and grind down the seams to a fairly uniform thickness?

With a bit of practice, if you just overlay sheets ( 1mm )you can certainly do fusion welds, one burns a few holes initially but you will get the hang of it over time.