To solder
silver you need a solder and a flux (apart from a pair of non-shaking hands and few
other things). Not that I was planning to solder day in - day out, but it was
interesting to try at least. Moreover, it would come handy in one of my handmade
jewellery projects – to be able to solder sterling silver findings if a design
requires or just for strong connections.
Anyway, I started with a check-list. It turned out that I had most of the things needed (yes, even a pair of non-shaking hands) but flux. I even had a solder which I was not aware of when I bought it a year ago.... well, I was sure I was buying just usual silver wire and the shop assistant couldn’t explain me in plain English what type of wire it was. To be fair, he tried it in plain Icelandic but my Icelandic vocabulary did not stretch so far as types of silver wire at that time.
Anyway, I started with a check-list. It turned out that I had most of the things needed (yes, even a pair of non-shaking hands) but flux. I even had a solder which I was not aware of when I bought it a year ago.... well, I was sure I was buying just usual silver wire and the shop assistant couldn’t explain me in plain English what type of wire it was. To be fair, he tried it in plain Icelandic but my Icelandic vocabulary did not stretch so far as types of silver wire at that time.
Ok, back
to the check-list... I mean to borax. This is very multifunctional substance (check
Wikipedia and you would be surprised) and can be used as a flux for silver
soldering. "Fine," said I, "I will get a pinch of this magic powder and try soldering."
Ha-ha, said heavens... No, I mean I could find it in one of the shops selling
stuff for handcraft and hobbies, but the minimum amount they offered was 1 litre!
I am not a jewellery production line (yet) to consume so much... although I
could always use it for gardening in my non-existing garden or for bleaching my
still existing teeth.
My very
capable husband was luckier – he found a 100 gram pack of borax in the same
shop but! for the price of 1 litre... which puzzled me even more. After being
puzzled for some time I’ve got a brilliant idea – we just go to a household and
DIY store and surely they will have it there... people solder in households,
right? Or at least repel cockroaches and other bugs with it. And we went. And
there an epiphany moment came upon me – I live in a highly-civilized society
where people do not bother using borax powder for soldering but use a
solder wire already with flux inside... everything is made for not tiring
people and avoiding any possible challenge. And they don’t have cockroaches to
repel (I don’t mean those which live in their heads).
Then we
tried one more shop where they had had it for gardening but run out of this superpowder
some time ago and, most likely, didn’t bother to order more before that elusive
Icelandic summer possible approach. But the guy there was kind enough to
mention a couple of places in Reykjavik we could be lucky. It’s worth
mentioning that we don’t live in the capital and trip there is not our idea of
having a good time. Not saying that with those petrol prices borax will
approach the price of the other magic white powder.
I have
this flux filled solder wire myself (don’t get me wrong – purely by accident)
and now I’m considering scraping some flux out of it. Or I can try ordering
that 1 litre from the handcraft shop and bleach my laundry and teeth in organic
way or even that 100gr pack for the price of 1L if I want to be really
masochistic.
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