7
10
5
8
6
9
snowy white coat. Then apply snips
of hard solder to each join and heat
with the fl ame from a #0 tip until sol-
der fl ows. Use a solder pick to press
parts together if necessary. Quench,
pickle, and rinse. Saw off excess
prongs on the back of the plate. File
and sand fl ush.
THE SETTING’S TWIGS
Wearing a face mask, use a metal
straight edge and tiny screwdriver
to cut a 4" long groove into a clean
area on your Solderite board. Make
the groove about ⅛" deep and wide
enough to hold 14-gauge round
wire and 12-gauge half-round wire
in place. Straighten two 3" lengths
of 14-gauge round wire by rolling
them on a smooth countertop with
a bench block. Flux well and place in
the groove. Cut 12-gauge half-round
wire into ¼" snips, and align them
at staggered intervals on opposite
sides of the round wire, with two at
the tip (see twig at right in Photo 1).8
Flux and solder with snips of
hard solder. It’s OK to glob the
solder on. Quench, pickle, and rinse.
Widen the gouge in the Solderite
board and snug odd-shaped pieces
of sterling silver casting grain
against the tops of the half-round
pieces. This time, I used the stick sol-
dering technique to blend the pieces
together, gripping a length of hard
solder in fi reproof soldering tongs.
If it looks terrible, you are doing it
right. Quench, pickle, and rinse.9
Use a jeweler’s saw to cut
away some of the casting shot,
turning rounded spheres intooval shapes. Then hit each bud
with a fi ne grit Moore’s sanding
disk, carving and blending the
half-round wire and casting shot
into shape. The goal is a rough,
carefree fi nish.SOLDER THE SETTING
10
On the Solderite board,
everything wants to move
around when you get ready to
join the twigs and the back plate
together. So bend the ends of
each twig into a right angle. Using
the sharp scribe, gouge out two
holes and push the ends into
them.Tip: My prongs look ridiculously
long. But their extra mass helps
prevent them from melting during
soldering.SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 91