So sorry for not posting yesterday . My old Laptop decided to bite the dust – may he rest in pieces …er…..peace – , So now I am on an old Toshiba with a 9 inch screen, lol not easy to do and no more windows , no its linux now so I had to figure out how to upload photos and post and do all the stuff I do on the Laptop.

So this was the post for yesterday June 7th . or post number 12. Its a double cross in a fleur de lily design , I hope I wrote that right 🙂 . I cut out a larger cross from 18 gauge sterling silver and a smaller cross from 20 gauge sterling silver. You will notice that they do overlap on the ends and my design instructor at school always told us not to do that —-well take that —-I did it !!!!!————– and the best part is I like it that way.

The smaller cross was soldered onto the larger cross using extra easy silver solder. It flows the fastest and I have no patience now a days . Again I was told always go from the hardest solder to the easiest ( melting or flow point – the harder the solder the higher the temperature you need to get it to flow ) I almost exclusively use the extra easy solder even on the more elaborate big pieces. Yes you have to juggle a bit that not all the things you previously soldered flow away from you but I am pretty good with point soldering with my torch and that does not really happen any more.

So after the soldering quench it really quick and then the pickle solution for about 30 minutes to an hour . I have mine in a crock pott to heat it up a bit so that it works faster. The same goes for the liver of sulfur in a heated or warm state you have much quicker results and due to the cold weather here on the East Coast you have to use crock pots . In Arizona or New Mexico I just put a ceramic bowl out in the sun . That does the trick too .

After the pickle rinse with water ( never take anything out of the pickle solution with your bare hands – its acid ) use copper tongues to get your things . Any other metal will react with the solution and the copper particles and ions will adhere to your metal surface thus making it very very hard to clean .

I ran it through the big polisher before using the flex shaft and then chased some designs on the cross . Apply liver of sulfur and let dry . Polish the high points with your flexshaft and voila . A double crossing is the result