anneal silver wire, fire brick,dead soft?

[dlilazteca]

Going to be annealing silver and gold, silver first gold will come later.

My questions is do I need a firebrick? What are the advantages of using one.

Will be annealing fine silver 22ga that I ordered from Rio Grand.

I ordered it dead soft(does this mean I dont need to anneal?

thanks again

 

[Mike Fennell]

For fine wire, John Barraclough has the setup.

http://www.engraverscafe.com/showth...aling-of-precious-metal&highlight=john+anneal

 

[golden forge]

For smaller amounts of material, I anneal the metal on a charcoal soldering brick, the charcoal helps with fighting oxidation on the metal.

 

[phil]

If you ordered dead soft then it will be fully annealed..... hence the expression dead soft. As for a fire brick it isn't essential. if you coil the wire up and (holding it in tongs/forceps/tweezers etc) gently pass a flame over it and keep the flame moving over the wire.You will see it turn red as it gets hotter. It is maybe best to do this in low light conditions if you are new to it. Once a dull red colour has been obtained, drop the wire into a tub of cold water. This is called quenching and it will keep the crystals (internal physical atomic structures in gold and silver)in a fully expanded state ie. dead soft. Hope this helps.
Oh by the way. Don't be alarmed at seeing the metal turning black... oxidizing. If you drop it into citric or sulphuric acid it will remove this tarnish but there is no real need as you will be sanding the inlaid material anyway and this will remove any oxidation.

 

[Weldon47]

carlos,
When you are annealing, watch the color of the flame as it is passing over the wire…when it turns orange it's about right. On small diameter wire it's real easy to melt it so, watching the flame color is an easy way to gauge it.
Hope that helps,
Weldon

 

[Willem Parel]

I f you don't trust yourself turn off the light switch, annealing in a rather dark room without bright light makes it more easyer to see how red your silver or gold is while annealing.
(And I don't mean doing this at night ofcourse:beatup: )

 

[mdengraver]

This post is starting to get work hardened. It's now time to anneal it!

 

[dlilazteca]

Thanks everyone, for some reason when I ran a search (anneal) that tip never came up. Searched from the tappatalk app.

Thank you all for your help.

Carlos De La O III

 

[dlilazteca]

This post is starting to get work hardened. It's now time to anneal it!

Now remember what we just learned, using a charcoal brick helps, only to a dull red color, don't forget to dim the lights, watch the flame as this is an indicator, don't forget to quench, and read the tip section, whhhhoooohhh all that one one breath.

Thanks guys really!

Carlos De La O III

 

[Bama]

Carlos if your wire gets springy while you are working with it, it has become work hardened. I like to use a steel plate to lay my wire on and heat the wire through the plate. You will see the wire relax when it hits the right temperature. I do this because I have a tendency to melt the wire if I use a direct flame. This is just another way of skinning a cat.

 

[dlilazteca]

Carlos if your wire gets springy while you are working with it, it has become work hardened. I like to use a steel plate to lay my wire on and heat the wire through the plate. You will see the wire relax when it hits the right temperature. I do this because I have a tendency to melt the wire if I use a direct flame. This is just another way of skinning a cat.

Bama

I like that good for rookies like me, how do you suspend your plate? Like the diving board mentioned earlier in the link?

Carlos De La O III

 

[Martin Strolz]

Pure precious metals like fine silver or fine gold do not interact with oxygene, -not even at raised temperatures.These will not tarnish in the flame.
Martin

 

[Beathard]

Dude? Did you forget the silver you annealed a my house. We didn't use a brick.

 

[dlilazteca]

Dude? Did you forget the silver you annealed a my house. We didn't use a brick.

I remember, just reading somewhere about using one to help distribute heat and wanted to learn more

Carlos De La O III

 

[tim halloran]

Carlos: I use a butane lighter to anneal 24K gold and fine silver wire. Unless your going to do a large quantity why complicate things, keep it simple.