The Real Soldering Challenge!


Step 3
Soldering on the Top Bezels

After making two bezels for two 13x10 mm malachite stones (my favorite), I filed the bottom of both a little to fit the dome better. I did not file them to fit the dome perfectly. I have found that Hard solder does fill gaps even better than easy and medium. There were some small gaps between the base and the bezel. Yes, I would recommend to file them to fit perfectly, but it was nearly 10:00 PM and my "cameraman" wanted to go home!

Because of this, I rushed a little. I placed the bezel on the dome, sprayed on the flux, and dried it as usual.




I placed several large pieces of solder into each of the two bezels. Each piece was about 1/8x1/4 inch. I wanted enough to fill the gaps and hide my laziness, and I really don't care what it looks like inside the bezel. The stone will cover it, and I do not do silversmithing to impress anyone except the person buying it.



I must confess that before lighting the torch, I told Chad, my webmaster and cameraman, and also the students still working Wednesday night that I was really afraid that I had opened my big mouth too soon. I was a little afraid the whole piece would come apart. I wasn't sure if all 46 pieces of square wire would just slide in to one big pile. Chad kept insisting that the hard solder, controlling the heat, and the surface tension would hold it together, but I was really frightened. It began to even seem to me impossible to solder on two bezels at the same time with hard solder when dealing with 46 pieces standing up in a dome. On top of all that I was using the $10.00 propane torch on a piece that weighs about an ounce or more.

I kept heating the piece and heating it some more, and watching the flux for the signs that tell me the hard solder is about to melt. Then suddenly, I would see the solder melt between some of the square wires, and I would begin to have one of those moments that some craftsmen have. You know, I was asking myself things like: "why didn't I put on a back sheet to hold all these wires in place?" Then I reminded myself that I was going to show what happened either way, and I felt that a back sheet would be cheating. I wanted to show that all those square wires would stay in place!

Then just like it should, the hard solder began to melt inside the bezels and flow all around the joint, soldering them beautifully to the base. Nothing moved out of place, and now that the bezels are soldered on, I feel they will help hold the square wires in place for the next challenge: 20 wires and tubes sticking up from the dome at about 1/2 inch.




As you can see, the solder did get a little oxidized because I took a little longer to solder it than I like. I kept the flame a little smaller than I should have because I was nervous about overheating it.

This does not hurt a thing, and when pickled will not even show, but again it is inside the bezel, under the stone, so who cares!




This is what it looks like from the side. By the way I used 3/16 inch bezel so the stones could be set up and off the dome. I also wanted the stones to be raised off the base plate to look good with the 20 wires and tubes that will be soldered on next.



This piece is up to 52 solder joints with a goal of over 100. If someone wants to take up the challenge of duplicating this piece, when do you think they would start to use medium solder, or even easy solder?

I will be adding the twenty (20) wires and tubes on to the piece next week. Would those be soldered on with Medium, or would that be setting up a problem when the next soldering joints are made?



These elements of this piece are still ahead!



  1. 20 tubes and wires sticking straight up off the dome past the stones.
  2. Several pieces soldered on top of some of those wires and tubes.
  3. Then just for a surprise for a new friend, I am going to add some elements to the back.
    1. A bezel for a large stone. This should make putting two bezels on a dome look easy to do. This step is where I feel the whole thing may fall apart.
    2. Some more wires and tubes.
    3. Some cast leaves to add the element of soldering on some cast pieces.
  4. A bail that needs to be planned, but must be impressive.
  5. Something that moves!
  6. Maybe some filigree. You know that will be impossible to do with hard solder on a heavy piece.
  7. Then I may just have to add a skeleton to this piece! If I do, I will send one for free to anybody that wishes to take up this challenge using easy and medium solder also.





This was not a confident, thumbs up, this was a "Whew, I love that hard solder with its surface tension, and that $10.00 torch, and I cannot believe it stayed together thumbs up!"



Click here for The Solder Challenge Part 3