What are my choices?

[Steel and Stone]

Those blocks are most likely magnesium blocks. Thunderbird supply, and Bernie's Lapidary sells them.
They help the soldering process by reflecting the heat back to the piece you are soldering and you can push pins in them no problem.

[Taogem]

Those blocks are most likely magnesium blocks. Thunderbird supply, and Bernie's Lapidary sells them.
They help the soldering process by reflecting the heat back to the piece you are soldering and you can push pins in them no problem.

Oh, ok... I bought one of those. At the time I could not think of a reason to get the large block. It was about 3 or 4 times the size that I got. about a 3 x 4 or so..

I did find one of those hands free deals with the magnifying glass last night. It was only about 5.00

Thanks 

[Taogem]

When I want to make a piece without a back, I first cut the normal bezel (flat), then cut a second piece of square wire and place it inside and along the edge of the bezel. The two can be closed and soldered together at eh same time. The square wire becomes a step for the stone to sit on. You can control the height depending on the gage of square wire you use.

Probably not a bright question, but.. that square wire needs to be fine silver to match the bezel tape? Since it is sorta hidden maybe could be a less expensive metal? Or maybe it is just sort of the right way to do it. Using the same fine silver?

[theimage1]

I use regular sterling silver square wire., not pure silver for the square wire. If you use a second metal, like brass then your total piece losses the "legal" right to be called sterling silver and is supposed to be listed as a mixed metal with sterling silver. This is a bit of a gray area.

Diagram silver bezel lighter gray -
sq wire darker gray

Keep in mind the square wire can be soldered higher up on bezel wall  if desired.

This is pretty much what step bezel is, but I don't normally stock it, I just make it if needed.

[Taogem]

Ok, so just to be clear.....

I can use the fine silver bezel tape that I have and it will solder to the sterling?

Also.... the fine silver bezel tape that I have is 5 mm in height.

What would be the best gauge of square sterling to use with that?

Can't get enough of your 3D   

[Taogem]

Actually, now that I think about it. Almost all of my stones are shaped with a beveled edge and just enough of a straight outer perimeter so as to fit into a 5 mm tape with backing.

So using this method, would have to shape a cab differently because of the square tape.

Just talking out loud....... 

[theimage1]

22ga wire is roughly 0.6 mm, 20 ga is abut 0.8 mm and 18 ga is about 1.0 mm. Truthfully I just grab what looks visually about right and solder. I never really "did the math". Soldering to a sterling silver backing is just the same as soldering to the SS square wire. I usually use 24 ga or 26 ga SS silver for backs on my simple designs. I use square tube, hex tube or round tube to make quick bails ... see the yellow and red mookaite pendant elsewhere.

About the only thing I use pure silver for is bezel, I keep about three sizes. but don't ask me what they are, I just know I have three different ones that I bought 1 oz each of from Rio or Metalferrous about 18 mos ago.

[Taogem]

I made the mistake of ordering the round sterling wire in a 20 gauge. I can tell it is not going to support the idea of joining a couple of backed bezel settings together.

Got it in a dead soft too. Not sure that was correct either, but that is the only choice I see in Rio catalog.

Then the step bezel I received is stepped on both sides? Might be mistaken, but just don't see any way to use it.

I also apparently ordered the wrong darn dimensioned step tape. Now this was just for the purpose of running it around the perimeter of the stone and not use any backing at all.

I ordered a .100 in height, with a step height of .040. The one with the most height is .145 and step height of .054.

But when I re-order and get the .054 not so sure that is going to hold the stone in place either.

This stone in the pic is 4 mm overall height with a 1 mm bevel. Not so sure that the .054 will hold the stone securely either.

Did not do so good ordering. Very disappointing....

[Taogem]

George,

A 1" x 6" piece will be no problem at all and I can annel it and flaten it back out.

Steel and Stone Designs
8383 Mazette Road
Weeki Wachee, FL. 34613

I received the backing in the mail today.

It looks absolutely perfect!

annealing simply means to take a torch to a piece of soft metal so as to harden it, correct?

Is this piece annealed?

Can I do the same to the soft round fine silver wire that I just bought? If so, I imagine that would do that after it is shaped and probably even soldered in place?

[Steel and Stone]

George,

Annealing is what you do to "loosen the metal"  When you work copper, silver, and brass it gets what they call work hardend. If you work certain metals too much with out annealing them they will break. Annealing them brings them back to soft. If you notice in the Rio book and many other silver suppliers they will list weather or not it is hard, 1/2 hard or dead soft.  Most of what you buy will be dead soft. I use dead soft 18 or 16ga. wire to make earrings. After I am done making them I put them in my tumbler with stainless steel shot and burnishing compound and in by the next morning they will nice and clean and the tumbling "work hardens them so they keep their shape.

The piece I textured for you was thick enough and I only had to make one pass so it should be good to go.

[Taogem]

I have fit and soldered a bezel tape for a stone.

Before soldering the bezel to the textured backing I ran the bottom of the soldered bezel across a piece of sandpaper to make it completely flat to the backing.

Since the backing has been run through rollers it has slight bends in it. So when I place the flat edge of the bezel to it, there are areas that light can be seen between the two.

I don't think want to try and hammer in any way the textured backing in an attempt to make it flatter.

Just how precise does the surfaces of the two need to be for a successful solder?

Any suggestions?

[Steel and Stone]

George,

If you have a perfectly flat piece of steel or even a scrap piece of marble window sill or any other flat material you can use that and a plastic, or rawhide hammer to flatten the silver. You just can't use a regular hammer as it will marr the silver and mess the pattern up.  There are times you can see daylight between the strip and the backing but if it is any more than say the thickness of a sheet of paper or 2 you need to get it closer. I'm not saying it won't solder but the better the fit the easier it is to solder.

[Taogem]

Thanks for that.

I will give that a whirl right now and let you know how it goes.

[Taogem]

Hmmm......  :

Ok, after the first attempt, the solder did not get hot enough. Don't know if it was the correct thing to do, but cleaned it well then added more silver paste and heated again. The second pic is after the second attempt.




I don't know what or why the area where I soldered the bezel tape together developed this copper colored like area after I soldered the bezel to the backing. Not sure how to remove it either.

The silver paste solder seems to have come through to the outside of the bezel tape and now there is this dark area around the outside of the base of the bezel tape where it meets the backing.



It also seems like I lost a bit of the texturing. Maybe it is just faded or something?



Not sure.... maybe put the stone in and roll the tape over it. Then might need to buy what I need to tumble clean it?

Suggestions and input?

[Steel and Stone]

George,

The discoloring looks like fire scale and some if it should come off when you pickle it and the rest should come off when you clean, and remove any scratches on  the bezel with the silicone polshers or 3m radial brushes or what ever you have to do that. You can also use bobbin compound, red, or brown rouge to do it also. If you plan on tumbling you cannot do that after you set the stone. The stone needs to be the last thing you do after all the cleaning, polishing, and tumbling.

As for the texture it's still there on you clean it all up the dullness will go away and you should be left with a nice clean textured piece. The only reason you would loose any texture is if you heated your silver up way to hot (It would have turned red)