Welcome to soldering sterlium plus the Stuller way.  As we will see from these demonstrations there is very little difference in techniques between soldering sterlium plus and the traditional sterling silver that you are more familiar with.  However the benefits of sterlium plus are easy to see.  For this tutorial we'll walk you through the process of assembling a solstice head and shank and a post on a scroll setting.  

The tools and materials listed on the screen are used for this demonstration.

Let's now talk about fuel supply.  We recommend natural gas or propane and oxygen for soldering.  They are cleaner burning than a settling.  Moving on to prepping your components.  Make sure your components fit tight and flush with as little gaps as possible.  Remember solder is used for bonding, not as a filler.  At this point you'll clean your components in an ultrasonic.  Use an ultra CR soap.  Rinse then steam.  Now we're ready to solder the head onto the shank.  You'll use medium solder, which gives you the ability to step solder down should you need to size the shank later.  Here's a tip for easy solder identification: take a pointed scribe and etch the name and type of solder on the four corners of the coupon.  This way you'll always know what type of solder you have, even though you've chipped away at the coupon.  Using your jeweler shears cut chips from your coupon approximately 1.25 x 1.25 millimeter in size.  Place and position the solstice head and the solstice shank.  Keeping these parts aligned and straight, place them upside down so the prong tips are on the ceramic solder board.  This will help protect the prong tips from overheating.  Carefully coat the parts with fire coat mixture and light it to burn off. Apply the dandix flux on the joints to be soldered.  Adjust your torch flame to a large neutral flame as silver is an excellent conductor of heat and the heat will travel.  Slowly bring your flame towards the solder chip and as soon as it balls up quickly pick up the ball with your solder pick.  Be careful not to overheat the solder.  Heat the whole shank, not just the joint to be soldered to avoid overheating the joint and prevent solder flow.  Once the shank is heated release the solder ball by touching it on the joint to be soldered.  If it doesn't release, continue to heat the whole shank and try it again until the solder releases.  Once the solder releases, use a large sweeping motion back and forth across the joint until the solder flows. Repeat this process to solder all of the joints. When assembly is complete clean the mounting in a pickle solution to remove the fire coating and complete with traditional finishing processes.

Let's move on to soldering a post in an earring setting assembly.  To reduce the risk of overheating and melting you'll use an easy solder for these smaller intricate components.  Again, grab your jeweler shears and cut chips from your coupon approximately 0.80 x 0.80 millimeter in size.  Dip the setting in the fire coat mixture.  Place the setting upside down on its prong tips on the ceramic solder board then light it to burn off.  Lock the posts and locking tweezers and dip the posts in the fire coat mixture. Light it to burn off as well.  Put a small amount of dandix flux on the pad of the setting and the end of the post to be soldered.  Using a smaller neutral flame, slowly bring your torch flame towards a solder chip and as soon as it balls up, quickly pick up the ball with the solder pick.  Slowly heat the earring with the torch.  Move the flame away and try to release the solder ball on the pad of the earring.  If it does not release, heat up the earring more until it will.  Once the solder is in place, use a sweeping motion to flow the solder on the pad.  Bring the posts into position with light pressure to avoid post collapse during soldering.  Using a sweeping motion with the torch, solder the posts in place.  Once the solder liquifies, immediately remove the heat and hold the posts in place until secure.  Clean the assembled earring in a pickled solution to remove the fire coating.  Complete with traditional finishing processes.

As you can see, sterlium plus provides less oxidation and therefore retains its shine when soldering.  The pickle solution is only used when soldering sterlium plus to remove fire coating.  Other benefits of using sterlium plus include tarnish resistance, improved hardness, and bright white color.  And there you have it two examples of soldering sterlium plus the Stuller way.  Thanks for watching.