Posted by Gary Dodge on September 06, 2002 at 10:57:19:
In Reply to: decorative soldering posted by Pam Perkins on September 05, 2002 at 17:22:22:
Pam,
Decorative soldering is usually done with a smaller soldering iron and tip and uses different types of solder to enhance your ability to control the solder. To achieve the beaded edge you describe one might want to lay down a base of 50/50 solder, then dress it with beads of 63/37 or 60/40 using plenty of flux. You pick up beads of solder on the end of the iron and carefully deposit them on the edge (held uright). You need to work fast so the base metal doesn't melt away and yet you need to melt it just enough that you are sure that the drops will be bonded to it.
You can easily achieve a similar effect by just soldering a ball chain around the edges of your piece.
Another option is to use scalloped sold by Venture foil under the name "new wave". Just foil around the outside of your piece then let solder drip down to the end of each of the scallops...Pretty neat.
GaryD
: I have a friend that does decorative soldering..by that, I mean she puts tiny beading around the edges of some of her pieces...she won't share how she does this...does it have to do with the type solder you use or temperature of your iron?