What solder to use for jewelry

Hello

I took a class on stained glass and really enjoyed it. Now I'd like to make jewelry and mirrors with the same sort of tools.

I have a soldering iron, foil tape, flux. I tried one lead free solder and it's awful. It seems to be burning and leaving chunks of black in the solder.

What solder should I use that will be next to the skin? Will the flux work or do I need a different kind? Is patina ok to use on something near the skin?

I've searched the web and all they say is "lead free" solder. I've searched ebay and have no clue what is good for this
purpose.

Looking through here I see staybrite and tix. Is that what I should be looking for? Does the flux I have work with it as well as my solder iron?

Thank you,

Cassandra

[Metalman]

I did a search of our forum for "soldering"
here are some discussion threads regarding you question which will be worth your while to read through

http://www.rings-things.com/cgi-bin....ldering
http://www.rings-things.com/cgi-bin....ldering
http://www.rings-things.com/cgi-bin....ldering
http://www.rings-things.com/cgi-bin....ldering

The question then arises as to the character and quality of your work.  If you are making costume grade jewelry for occasional wear - you may do fine with some method of gluing or 'soft' soldering.
If you are heading toward the "Fine Jewelry" end of the scale, you may want to investigate 'hard' soldering. This will involve you more in the metalsmithing and jewelrysmithing aspects of our craft.
I would recommend the Tim McCreight book The Complete Metalsmith for your growing studio either way.  The R&T # is 62-010.
Regarding skin contact - the patinas and the 'Soft' solders both have the potential to be skin irritants.  It also depends on the contact.  A ring can cause problems because of the continuous contact, a pendant on a sterling chain is much less of a problem.
I would bet that the solder you mention was an electrical solder which would have a rosin core to flux it - this would give the effect that you describe.
Staybrite comes with a flux although it is much the same as what you are using with your stained glass.
Send us your further questions as they arise.

[azurefire]

For stained glass work, including jewelry, the best solder is IA-423 from Johnson Manufacturing.  Do a google search for the company and you'll find their website.  You'll probably have to order five pounds or more, though.  It's a wonderfully shiny solder containing 5 percent silver.  I'm glad you're using lead-free.  I see people still selling stained glass jewelery, and other often-handled items, using leaded solder.  Most stained glass people will tell you lead-free won't work, but they haven't used the right solder. (Plus they are committed to the idea that noone's health is endangered by the cheap solder they are used to.)  My last few years doing stained glass I used IA-423 exclusively, and its a great solder.

(I hope this post is still in the same thread -- I guess I wasn't automatically logged in and had to go do it.)

[Russ Nobbs]

It's covered in the other threads that Kurt pointed you to.... but I wanted to verify that both Tix and StaBrite come complete with their own fluxes. You don't need to buy flux separately tho I suppose some other fluxes might work as well.

They both work very well for small jewelry "soft" soldering.