Elias Alias | Okay, so I play with fire... @EliasAlias | Uploaded September 2018 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
M2U01461
NOTE: Please turn volume down to prevent breathing distractions -- one does this sort of work while holding one's breath, and I seem to have kept my audio up too loud on this one. Thanks!
Experimenting with the camera while soldering ear posts to my sterling silver seeds of liberty.
What else should an old man do in the middle of the night, eh? ;)
I have clipped six slivers of silver solder and placed them on a charcoal fire brick.
I then selected six silver seeds and bathed each of them in boric acid solution of denatured alcohol, and then placed them onto the charcoal block.
I then took six sterling silver ear posts and mounted them each in a pair of fire tweezers, then bathed them also in the boric acid solution.
Next I took a small brush and soaked it in self-pickling flux and applied the flux to each seed and to the end of each ear post.
Then I took up my torch and heated each seed, one at a time, until it was hot enough to take a sliver of solder from the tip of my soldering pick, held in my left hand.
Finally I took each of six fire-tweezers with respective ear posts and heated the seed once again while pressing the ear post down onto the seed and flowing solder to join the two pieces of silver.
I then dumped the lot of them into a pickle bath (mild acid treatment) which will remove any fire-scale formed during the process.
I will try to make a video of what they look like after I have put a hand-applied Florentine texture on each of them and then applied chemical baths with a final plating of rhodium to keep the silver seeds bright and shiny.
---------------------------------------------------
Editing in on April 14 2019 -- Here is a link to my online store, which is now ready for business but which I have not announced publicly -- yet! I will be announcing it (I hope!) before end of April 2019. Thank you for viewing.
silverseedsofliberty.com/shop
M2U01461
NOTE: Please turn volume down to prevent breathing distractions -- one does this sort of work while holding one's breath, and I seem to have kept my audio up too loud on this one. Thanks!
Experimenting with the camera while soldering ear posts to my sterling silver seeds of liberty.
What else should an old man do in the middle of the night, eh? ;)
I have clipped six slivers of silver solder and placed them on a charcoal fire brick.
I then selected six silver seeds and bathed each of them in boric acid solution of denatured alcohol, and then placed them onto the charcoal block.
I then took six sterling silver ear posts and mounted them each in a pair of fire tweezers, then bathed them also in the boric acid solution.
Next I took a small brush and soaked it in self-pickling flux and applied the flux to each seed and to the end of each ear post.
Then I took up my torch and heated each seed, one at a time, until it was hot enough to take a sliver of solder from the tip of my soldering pick, held in my left hand.
Finally I took each of six fire-tweezers with respective ear posts and heated the seed once again while pressing the ear post down onto the seed and flowing solder to join the two pieces of silver.
I then dumped the lot of them into a pickle bath (mild acid treatment) which will remove any fire-scale formed during the process.
I will try to make a video of what they look like after I have put a hand-applied Florentine texture on each of them and then applied chemical baths with a final plating of rhodium to keep the silver seeds bright and shiny.
---------------------------------------------------
Editing in on April 14 2019 -- Here is a link to my online store, which is now ready for business but which I have not announced publicly -- yet! I will be announcing it (I hope!) before end of April 2019. Thank you for viewing.
silverseedsofliberty.com/shop
