A little while ago I answered a question from a beginner in this group.  She was asking advice on which solder grades to get.  I responded in a very 'text book' way - use hard for the first join, then medium and then easy/extra easy so the solder join doesn't reflow and open up. When another experienced silversmith replied using lived experience, it made me question why I went to a text book answer instead of using my own 15 years of experience to reply. What I took from that exchange is the fuller three-tier system is more of a safety net for beginners than what working silversmiths actually rely on.

That's worth sitting with, because this was true to my own experience over the years. I’d just not noticed I'd defaulted to the textbook version without really thinking about it.

So when a bezel reopens while attaching it to a backplate the question isn’t really “which grade of solder did I use”. It’s “did I get a genuinely strong join in the first place”, or “did it only look soldered”.

Most beginners are still learning to read the metal itself and the process. What takes longer to notice is:-

• What evenly heated actually looks like
• What overheating actually looks like - colour changing too fast, metal starting to move or pit versus normal heat colour
• What underheating looks like -  solder sitting on the surface rather than being pulled through the joint by capillary action
• What a properly flowed join looks like when it's done, versus one that's merely stuck together with surface tension and flux residue

A join that never fully flowed wasn't structurally solid to begin with. So when it "reopens" at the next soldering step, that's not really the second heat application undoing a good join, it's revealing one that was already weak. The grade was never really the variable that mattered.

My own practice is hard solder for the initial join, hard again for the backplate, easy or extra-easy only for the last, non-structural steps like a bail, ear posts, embellishments. That's not a rule so much as where I've landed after 15 years of learning to actually read flow, rather than trusting a grade to do the reading for me.

If you're newer to this, medium is a completely reasonable place to be working from. It buys you a margin while you're still building that eye. I'm curious what you notice, next time a join comes apart. Was it really the grade, or was there a moment during that first join where you weren't fully sure it had flowed?

My mom bought me this sword at an antique store. The lady working said it has been there for about 20ish years and doesn’t remember where she got it. I tried reverse imaging it but nothing came up. Anyone have an idea on what company could have made this?

Hi all! I’m making a silver bezel ring with resin and flowers, but the silver background makes my flowers turn dark or blend in. I want to make a solid white bottom layer over the base sheet so the flowers pop.

I'm thinking of using a thin layer of Padico La Doll Premier White air-dry clay, letting it dry, and then building the resin on top. Or even mixing white Earth & Mineral Pigment powder into resin, and curing that as a bottom layer, but I worry it will still be opaque.

Has anyone tried this? Will air-dry clay crack under UV light, or should I try a UV clay instead? Open to any other tips or better approaches!

At least it was broken by a silversmith! lol
The piece holding the hinge connector was an eyelash thick piece of silver, so ideally I will want to strengthen it.

I have some 20g wire I can use to repair the broken bit, but I usually use graphite powder as a solder resist on moving parts and I’m not sure it would be a good idea since its such tiny components and I don’t want to get the seam dirty too.

Much less worried about the stones, they’re just white sapphire so can be worked on.

Tips, tricks, advice, and anything that might help would be appreciated before I go torching my roommates bracelet!