Silver Solder Pendant

[BeachBum]

Hi all,

I'm mainly into wire and beads.  I know very little about soldering.  A friend gave me a pendant made completely from lead-free silver solder.  Is this safe to wear against your skin?  I read something about cadmium being in silver solder.   "I'm so confused" -- I need a metal god's help!  TIA

[Russ Nobbs]

Hi there! Welcome to our forums!

I can't tell  you for sure. There are 2 things that might be called "lead free silver solder."

Low temperature "soft " solder for use with a soldering iron or electric soldering gun is a tin/silver alloy. It is very soft, very malleable. Common brands are "Tix" and "Sta-Brite."

Solder for use with a torch for "hard" soldering (or more accuratey "brazing") to assemble  silver sheet and wire into jewelry is an alloy of silver, copper, zinc and, sometimes cadmium. Cadmium is much less common today because of safety concerns. Solder for brazing is much harder and stiffer than "Tix" or"Sta-Brite."

If the pendant is melted and puddled "lead free silver solder" then it is of the "Tix" or"Sta-Brite kind. If it is made from hard, stiff wire, then it is likely to be silver brazing solder.

Look at the definitions at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solder for more details.  You will have to ask your friend which kind of "lead free silver solder" they used.

[BeachBum]

Thank you so much.  Yes, I will have to ask what they used since it was melted to the size of a quarter and then formed.

Thanks for your quick response -- I really appreciate!

[Russ Nobbs]

Glad I could help.

I'll make a guess here.
If they melted it down to the size of a quarter it's probably a very soft, very malleable tin/silver alloy like "Tix" and "Sta-Brite.
That would be very similar to lead free pewter which is usually safe to wear.

That's just a guess since I've not seen the pendant.