"Moving Scenes" - 17/05/2019 Argentium
I've seen so many people online, swearing by Argentium, so have spent the past year using it as much as possible.
However, after this project, I've gone off it.
Something that struck me for the first time with this sheet, is that you can clearly see some of the internal structure to the metal.
Swirls and waves like Damascus steel.
I wonder if this has anything to do with the warping & bending I saw earlier.
I mainly wanted to switch to Argentium because of its resistance to fire scale (caused by copper in sterling, which is absent in Argentium). However I found fire scale to be just as much of a problem as it ever was (but I don't know why).
Repeated heating also caused pitting which was difficult to buff out.
And as I mentioned before, Argentium reacts to heat differently.
You don't heat the whole piece as with sterling, you concentrate on the area to be soldered.
I found that this meant I couldn't use the heat to control where the solder flowed and therefore found it unpredictable.
So I shall stick to sterling sheet and a life of endless buffing. I will however still use Argentium wire, as it balls up so wonderfully, and can be used for hypo-allergenic ear wires.
However, after this project, I've gone off it.
Something that struck me for the first time with this sheet, is that you can clearly see some of the internal structure to the metal.
Swirls and waves like Damascus steel.
I wonder if this has anything to do with the warping & bending I saw earlier.
I mainly wanted to switch to Argentium because of its resistance to fire scale (caused by copper in sterling, which is absent in Argentium). However I found fire scale to be just as much of a problem as it ever was (but I don't know why).
Repeated heating also caused pitting which was difficult to buff out.
And as I mentioned before, Argentium reacts to heat differently.
You don't heat the whole piece as with sterling, you concentrate on the area to be soldered.
I found that this meant I couldn't use the heat to control where the solder flowed and therefore found it unpredictable.
So I shall stick to sterling sheet and a life of endless buffing. I will however still use Argentium wire, as it balls up so wonderfully, and can be used for hypo-allergenic ear wires.
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