Jewelry soldering glossary: bench terms explained

Soldering is one of the pillars of handmade jewelry. This glossary gathers the words you hear at the bench, with the Spanish term. For the full procedure, see soldering for jewelry.

Materials #

• Solder (soldadura): an alloy that melts at a lower temperature than the pieces and joins them. In jewelry it is usually silver with copper and zinc, or gold.
• Hard, medium and easy solder (dura, media, fácil): three melting grades; hard melts at the highest temperature. They are used in that order, hard to easy, so earlier joints do not come apart. See types of solder.
• Silver solder (soldadura de plata): used on silver, copper and brass. On gold you use gold solder of the same karat.
• Pallion (paillón): a small chip of solder. It has its own entry.
• Solder paste (pasta de soldadura): powdered solder mixed with flux.
• Flux (fundente): cleans, shields from oxygen and lets the solder flow. See flux.
• Borax (bórax): traditional flux, a cake ground in water on a dish.
• Pickle (decapante): a mild acid bath that removes oxide after soldering. See pickling.

The physics of soldering #

• Capillary action (capilaridad): molten solder is drawn into a tight joint. That is why pieces must fit without gaps.
• Melting point (punto de fusión): the temperature at which a metal turns liquid. Alloys melt over a range, not at a single point.
• Refractory (refractario): a heat-resistant material, such as the brick or board the piece rests on.
• Cooling (enfriamiento): let the metal lose its red glow before quenching in water or pickle.
• Deoxidation (desoxidación): removing surface oxide, with flux before and pickle after.

Flame #

• Neutral, oxidizing and reducing flame: see flame types.

Defects #

• Firescale: a gray or purplish stain that appears on overheated sterling silver. See workshop chemistry.

Other methods #

• Capillary soldering: the method above, with a torch.
• Laser welding (soldadura por láser): fuses the metal with a concentrated beam, with no added solder or with very fine wire; ideal for repairs. See laser welding.