Michon Jewelry Blog

In a jewelry making forum that I participate in, Creative Wire Jewelry on Delphi forums, a recent topic of discussion has been soldering, and why it is that soldering irons cannot be used for soldering silver and gold.

In the jewelry world, the process of joining two pieces of metal by using a torch to melt a bit of metal called solder is often referred to as soldering. In other professions, this method of joining metal is called brazing. Soldering usually refers to the use of soldering irons to join metals (NOT silver or gold) by melting soft solder, for applications such as circuit boards. The difference between soldering and brazing then, is pretty significant, and if this difference is not understood it can cause a lot of frustration for the beginning jewelry maker.

I don’t know why jewelers call brazing ’soldering’ when the rest of the world calls it brazing. I do know that when I learned to braze, and whenever I’ve heard jewelers discuss brazing, (online or in person) they say soldering. Occasionally it will be mentioned that soldering means brazing, but that’s rare in my experience.

So, we have in the jewelry profession a term that is confusing to outsiders, who are used to soldering meaning something done with a soldering iron. The reason a soldering iron won’t work to melt silver solder or gold solder for jewelry applications is that silver and gold solders need to get a lot hotter than soldering irons will get before they melt. A very hot flame is needed to heat the metal being joined as well as to melt the solder when working with precious metals. I use a propane torch. There are fancier torches with even hotter flames that a lot of jewelers use, but propane works, and is affordable for the beginning jeweler - you can buy propane torches at hardware stores.

I won’t get into a detailed explanation of the soldering process - my opinion is that it is very hard to learn without in-person guidance. Watching experienced jewelers work with the torch is how I learned, and my experiments on my own were unsuccessful. The point I wanted to make is just this: when a jeweler says that they soldered something, they mean using a torch, not a soldering iron. I hope a beginning jeweler somewhere reads this article and saves a little money by not purchasing a soldering iron for silverwork.