We have had discussions on my mailing lists about hard solders in the past, and I just finished a four week Online Mini Class that teaches my method of making and soldering on a three wire ring band. After I soldered on the band and finished all the photos, I decided to teach my son (he was the camera man) another reason I use hard solder. A better way to say it is "Why I do not teach to use easy and medium solder."

First, we must agree that the only reason to have easy, medium and hard solder is that they melt at different temperatures. I do not believe any one will have an argument with that.

Then, I think we will all agree that they teach us that we want those different melting and flowing temperatures so that we can use them in circumstances where we do not want to remelt previous solder joints. Correct?

You know--so that you can start with hard solder, then do the next soldering operations with medium and then the last ones with easy. You are taught to do all this so that you will not remelt the solder joints preceding the next one, and so that things do not fall apart. Right?

Wrong, there are only three reasons, we still teach using easy, medium and hard solders.

1. That is the way we were taught! (It is time to stop this nonsense!)

2. Solder manufacturers, catalog companies, retail stores, and some teachers make a good profit by selling all three types of solder.

3. We have not tried to use only hard solder for every solder joint on a few pieces.

I think this series of photos will probably shock most of you, especially if you are a strong proponent of use all three.

REMEMBER: I am a silversmith, not a goldsmith. I am teaching silversmithing not goldsmithing.

Just for this experiment, I used a piece of scrap that we soldered on a bezel and three heavy large sterling silver balls. We made the balls out of our scrap. Everything was soldered on, and then filed off as usual. We soldered a three wire band onto it during a photo session for an Online Mini Class on Making a Three Wire Ring Band.

I placed the ring in to a third hand and began heating it with the torch. By the way these photos should shut up the people that tell me that a $10.00 torch does not get hot enough for silversmithing. By the way nearly all (about 95%) of all the jewelry on this website was made by my students with a $10.00 propane torch. Anyway, I began to heat the piece to take off the band. I wanted to save the band. This is a good way to take off a band.

I just heat it thoroughly and the top piece falls off. As you can see, the band does not come unsoldered. The top piece just fell off.

I then picked up the top piece and placed it into the third hand with the balls facing down, so that if we over heat this piece, they should fall off. After all that is why we should use easy or medium solder to put on a band, right?

I heated it to a dull red, and you can still see the balls hanging on there!

It quickly becomes red, and all the solder begins to flow.

The piece is glowing red, and of course there is no doubt that the solder is melted and flowing. Look at them there balls--they are still in place. How can that be?

A few second later, the whole piece is heated to just below the total melt down temperature. HOT! Look closely; you will see the balls still in position. Did I use magic?

It so hot in this photo that the entire surface is beginning to melt and shimmer. Remember, the balls and bezel are hanging down, and they are not moving or dropping off!

The entire piece is beginning to melt, and you can still see the balls! They have not moved!

A small portion on the front edge is beginning to melt. Great balls-o-fire, they are still hanging in there!!!

Oops, about half of the entire piece melted and dropped down on to the charcoal block in a ball--but the balls are still in position. Impossible? No, it will work this way every time!

I am melting it some more, and they are still in position.

I took the torch off to show more of the piece that melted and began to drip, but the balls on the front edge are still there. They had begun to melt, but they did not move!

Ok, why did the balls and the bezel not fall off? Why is it that most teachers will say to use easy solder to put on a ring band, so that all these things do not fall off? I will bet that most have not tried this. The magic is something called surface tension! Surface tension is that Mother Nature's physics magic that I really cannot explain in detail, but here is my scientific explanation. You can perform this experiment.

On a hot day, go down to the pub, buy three beers and drink them. When you get to the fourth beer, let it set for a few seconds on the coaster. When you pick it up, the coaster sticks to the bottom of the glass. Surface Tension! The glass and the coaster are not sticky, just wet. But this moisture makes the coaster "stick" to the bottom of the glass. How? Physics I'm sure! By the way, I do this experiment with ice tea!

Anyway, surface tension will hold almost all of your design elements in place once they have been soldered down. This is especially true on pendants and rings. Surface tension actually overcomes gravity.

Now did I cheat?

Yes, in a way!

I used hard solder as I always do. Lots of it! I like hard solder!

You cheated too when you had three beers before trying to pick up the coaster. It takes enough moisture to create enough surface tension, before the effects of gravity are overcome. As long as the coaster is dry, there is no surface tension!

If I had used easy or medium solder sparingly (as most teach, because you do not want to see that junk!), there would not be enough solder in place to create enough surface tension to hold the balls.

So the warning is that if you are soldering something like a large leaf, and you use a small amount of solder, when you turn it upside down, and the solder melts, it will not have sufficient surface tension to hold it in place. Gravity will become the stronger physical force and the leaf will fall off. There are many other ways to keep it from falling off. Using easy and medium solder to keep previously soldered on elements from falling is just plain unnecessary, time consuming, and unattractive.

Just use hard solder for all your solder joints!

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