Making sure you are ready for a high volume of repairs looks different for every bench jeweler. Tools, experience, and preferred materials all come into play. The start of the year always means an influx of repairs from engagements, weddings, and gifts surrounding the recent holiday season. Do you have everything you need? Let’s look at the three most used materials in repair work and get expert tips on how to use them.
Sizing Stock
Sizing stock is a shaped wire typically used to resize rings. The shape is in a way that closely resembles a ring in order to reduce waste. This shaped wire is also used for many other applications such as making bracelets and even handcrafting rings.
Pro Tip
Use a clean piece of sizing stock that has been purchased new from a supplier as opposed to reusing metal from another piece of jewelry. You cannot be completely sure of another piece’s metal alloy composition and if it will be the best match for the repair.
Solder
Solder is small pieces of alloyed metals used to fuse other pieces of metal together at a place called a joint. You can find solder in three different types: easy, medium, and hard. The type of solder is determined by the melting point.
Pro Tip
Use multiple types of solder if you are working with multiple solder joints on a singular piece. You can only work on one joint at a time, and you won’t want one of the joints you just worked on to melt as you work on another one. Start with a hard solder on your first joint. Use a medium solder on the second joint, and use an easy solder on all remaining joints. As you work with lower melting points, you will be able to work on the easy solder joints without worrying about the hard solder joints reflowing.
Laser Wire
Laser wire is form of round wire that is used in repairs, such as filling craters and pores in jewelry, building or rebuilding prongs, and joining components. Because it uses the parent metal as the filler instead of a solder, there are no joint marks, so the repair looks seamless. Laser wire provides for a cleaner repair. It can work in smaller spaces so there isn’t a concern of getting solder on parts of the pieces of jewelry that weren’t intended.
Pro Tip
Start your laser at a lower voltage when you begin working with laser wire. Every wire has a different grade and works differently, so the lower voltage will help you understand the type of wire you are working with and how it behaves. A lower voltage lets you better see the contact with the wire and have a better visual while working.
Let Stuller Help
At Stuller, you can order sizing stock in a large coil roll that you can cut to your desired size or you can order your stock in the size increments you need precut. Stuller offers thousands of options in sizing stock in a variety of qualities, sizes, and metals.
We also carry a large selection of solder and laser wire in different metals and qualities that you need to address all your repair needs.
To see our full product offerings in sizing stock, solder, and laser wire, visit Stuller.com/Metals.
Words by Taylor Dizor.
