Pin Backs
Below are instructions on how I solder on a simple pin and catch for the
back of a pin or brooch.
(Is there a difference between a pin and a brooch?) For this class we
will call it a "brooch" so that entire piece of
jewelry will not be confused with the "pin" that will be soldered on to
the back of the Brooch.
I am also going to attach a "bail" at the top of this pin, as per the
customers request. A bail is the loop made for the
chain to go through. This way this brooch can be worn as a brooch
or as a pendant. The customer did not want to
use one of those adapters that can slide onto the pin to make a brooch
into a pendant. The customer also did not want
to see the bail on top of the pendant.
I should tell you now that I believe that the sterling silver that goes
into making a piece of jewelry is the cheapest
component of that piece. Usually your time is the most expensive part of
any piece of sterling silver jewelry, and if
you use a stone, the stone usually costs more than the silver.
Therefore, I do not worry about "wasting" silver. The first reason is
because it is so cheap, and second is because, unless you throw it away,
you cannot waste it. You can use small scraps
to make silver balls, you can cast it (see The Steam Casting On Line Class
and The Bean Casting On Line Class), or you can send it in
and have it refined if it has solder on it.
With this in mind, let's make a pin back.
Step One: Bend over one end of 18 gauge round wire to make a tight
loop.
This small loop can be made with your round nose pliers (Needle nose
pliers can also be used). Grip the wire about 1/4
inch away from one end, and bend the wire so that you will end up with a
small, fairly tight bend a 1/4 inch away
from the end. Click here for photo
Step Two: Bend this loop so that the small part will be parallel to the
long piece. Click here for photo
Step Three: Cut it off.
Cut a the other end of the round wire so that it is at least one inch
longer than the width of the brooch. If you make it two inches
longer than the width, it would even be better. Click here for photo
Step Four: Begin the clasp part of the pin back.
Grab another piece of 18 gauge round wire about one and one half (1
1/2) inch from the end with the round nose
pliers. Click here for photo
Step Five: Bend another loop in the end of another piece of wire.
Bend this loop very tightly around the smallest part of the round nose
pliers, usually the at the tip of the pliers. Click here for photo
Step Six: Close the loop.
Pinch the bend tightly so that it will make a small loop in the bend.
Needle nose pliers work the best for this step. Click here for photo
Step Seven: Cut off this loop.
Cut this loop off the long piece of 18 gauge round wire so that each
end is the same length. Also, make sure that
they are parallel and bent tightly together. Click here for photo
Step Eight: Bend a small bend into the end of this loop.
This bend should be at a 90 degree angle to the bend that made the loop.
This must be a very small bend, just enough to make
it easy for the pin to slide into. Click here for photo
Step Nine: Make the clasp.
Make another bend, fairly tight, about 1/2 inch from the loop end. This
bend should almost make a circle and can be
larger than the other bends. The loop end should be positioned just far
enough away from the other end so that the
pin can pass through it. Click here for photo
Step Ten: Cut off the clasp part.
Cut the loose end off equally about one quarter (1/4) inch from the end
of the loop. This will give you more surface to
solder it on to the back of the brooch. Click here for photo
Step Eleven: Make the bail.
I make a bail by taking a 12 gauge half round wire and bending it so that
the round side is inside the bend. I do this
so that the pendant can more easily slide on the chain. The size of the
bend depends upon the size of chain that the
pendant is going to hang from. Click here for photo
Step Twelve: Cut and File the bail.
Cut the bail so that the ends are the same length. The length depends on
the size of the chain used. Hold the bail in
your needle nose pliers and file at a 90 degree angle. This will make
the bail so that it can stand up by itself. Click here for photo
Step Thirteen: Place the bail and the catch on to the brooch and flux
all parts.
Decide where the pin will go and where the catch will go on the back of
the brooch.
To do this, I always place the pin about 2/3 up from the bottom of
the brooch, or just above 1/2 way up. This will
keep the brooch from flopping over. Because 2/3 of the weight of the
brooch is below the pin, the brooch will hang
from the pin as a pendulum. Place the catch part on the side that you
wish it to go on. I usually put it on the side that it
will make it easy for the person wearing it to put the brooch on. On
the left side (when the brooch is being worn) for
a right handed person, and on the right side for a left handed person.
This way the brooch can be held in the right
hand (for a right handed person) as the pin is pushed through the cloth, and
vice versa for a left handed person. Place the
bail at the top and center of the brooch.
I use Battern's Self Pickling Flux from Dixon. I put it into a $1.00
spray bottle, and I spray all the parts generously,
then heat them only to the point that the flux dries. Do not overheat
the pieces. If they are not covered with flux,
spay on a little more and reheat. They must be covered. I will cover my
soldering technique in depth on the
Silversmithing for Beginners List sometime in April. If interested in
more information about this list email me at:
dnorris@frii.com. Click here for photo
Step Fourteen: Get ready to solder.
I use only "hard" silver solder for all solder joints (unless
repairing a piece made by someone else, and I do not do repairs!).
I believe it makes better finished jewelry. I also use a lot of
it. It polishes just like sterling silver, so I do not
have to worry about too much solder. I use only sheet solder, cut into
snippets of various sizes. All my snippets are
larger than anyone else teaches to use. My average size is 1/8 x 1/4
inch. As I said, I will cover my soldering
technique in depth on the Silversmithing for Beginners List sometime in
April. If interested in more information about
this list email me at: dnorris@frii.com. It is too important and lengthy
to go into here. Please use what ever flux and
solder that you like, and/or, the solder that you always use.
Place a good size piece of solder (1/4 x 1/4 inch) on the loop end of
the pin. Place another 1/4 x 1/4 inch piece on the
loose ends of the catch. It should be placed so that it leans up on the
loose ends and it still touching the brooch. Place
two 1/8 x 1/4 inch pieces on the bail, one on each end of the bail.
Remember the bail is standing up on the back of the
brooch. It is impossible to see this in the photo. Try to lean the
solder up against the ends of the bail.
Heat the pin and melt the solder on to the loop end. In a way, this is
going to be "sweat" soldering. That is melting
solder on to one piece, then placing that piece on to another, and
letting the solder flow off the first piece on to the
second. I always teach to heat the silver from the farthest point away
from the solder joint. The entire piece must
get close to the soldering temperature before the solder flows to make a
good joint on sterling silver. Click here for photo
Step Fifteen: Solder on the bail and the catch.
Begin heating the brooch by pointing the torch as far away from both the
bail and the catch as possible. By the way, I
am using a $10.00 torch purchased from Ace Hardware. Yes, you can learn
to control the flame, and the heat just
fine for all sterling silver soldering, except large pieces. I watch the
flux. When it melts (about 100 degrees cooler than
the hard solder), I point the torch at the solder joints, and raise the
torch slightly to adjust the heat. This also allows
you to heat a large area of the piece to insure a good solder joint.
When the solder flows, get the torch off the piece.
You can not fix anything by using more heat! If the solder did not flow
where you wanted it to, use a solder pick (I
use a "Nudgit") to gently "nudge" the solder over to the joint. Click here for photo
Step Sixteen: Solder on the pin.
While the brooch is still hot, I pick up the pin with my jeweler's
tweezers. I position the charcoal block and the
brooch so that I can easily hold the pin on to the brooch in the proper
position. Put all your heat on to the brooch and
not the pin. When you see the solder starting to melt on the bail and
the catch, point the torch at solder joint on the
pin and it will flow. Now, everything is soldered into place! Click here for photo
Step Seventeen: Reharden the pin, clean the brooch and polish.
As you are probably asking yourself: "Didn't all this soldering anneal
(soften) the pin so that it will only bend when
trying to push it through the clothes?" The answer is: "Yes, it is very
annealed and too soft to use as a pin!" Click here for photo
We can fix that by bending a small right angled bend in the end of the
pin. Remember, it is at least 1/2 inch too long. So,
make this bend about a 1/4 of an inch. Hold this 1/4 inch bend in your
needle nose and slowly twist the entire brooch.
Do this in a fashion that does not bend the pin, but rather, twists it.
When you twist a single round wire, it does not
change the appearance of the round wire. What it does do, is work harden it. As
the wire twists, this works the metal and hardens the
wire. There is no other way to harden non Ferris metals (not steel) that
I know of. You either have to twist it,
hammer it, bend it, or in some other way "work" it. Usually two or three
twists will harden the pin well enough. It
will be more than hard enough to push through any cloth. I usually
puncture a students finger to prove to them that it
is really hard.
I then simply cut the pin off so that the point will fit under the clasp
and only stick out the other side slightly.
I sharpen it with a file to a long thin point, and then I have a hardened
sharp pin. Clean and polish as you always do.
Because I use hard solder, and a lot of it, there is a nice "fillet" of
solder on all solder joints. This makes a sturdy
joint and one that tells the customer that these pieces are really
soldered on well. In fact, on my pieces and my
students', I grind these joints down a little with a small "Brite boy"
wheel on a Foredom or Dremel. I clean up the
solder joint in a matter of seconds, so that you can not tell where the
solder starts or ends. It will look as if it was
carved out of one piece of metal! I love it when someone will ask my
students if they "cast" a piece jewelry that they
"fabricated" because they can not "see" the solder joints. This to me
is a quality piece. The other advantage is hard solder will stay
polished for as long as the sterling silver stays polished. My wife
wears pieces that have not been polished for over
ten years which look as good as the day I finished them. I will also
cover polishing at a later date.
Note: This is the simplest pin back that I know of. You can make fancier
ones, but I have never had any customer
rejection of this pin. I have also never had one break! After almost 30 years
of making sterling silver jewelry, I believe that
speaks for the strength of this pin.
If you have any questions, or a better way to do any thing, please let
me know by emailing me at dnorris@frii.com.
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