Silver smithing
Silver smithing workshop
Workshop for jewellery and fine metalwork: sawing, filing, soldering, pickling, rolling and polishing. A separate room inside the metal workshop.
Access | Free use; introduction course required for the MIG-O-MAT Lötstar 141 |
Help | Slack #silversmide |
Rules
No iron or steel in the pickle bath. Iron oxides discolour any silver put in afterwards. Remove all binding wire before pickling.
No tin or lead in the workshop. They react with silver and eat into it.
No propane cylinders. They may not be stored in the workshop under the building's safety rules.
Look after the tools.
When you leave
Shut down the Lötstar as described on its page.
Turn off the pickle bath and top it up with water if needed.
Put the lid back on the flux.
Sweep and clean the soldering area.
Equipment
Equipment | Page |
|---|---|
Microflame soldering | MIG-O-MAT Lötstar 141 — out of service |
Rolling mill | |
Tumbler | |
Polishing | |
Ring sizing |
Also in the workshop:
Heated citric-acid pickle bath
Files, saws, hammers and emery sticks
Flux H (paste)
Soldering blocks (charcoal, ceramic, Skamol) and rotating supports
Ring gauges and the bench pin
The full inventory is in Machines and inventory.
Soldering corner
Materials
Members bring their own silver, brass and copper. There may be solder in the workshop, but bring your own to be sure.
Suppliers:
Sargenta — web shop, store in Malmö
Konrad Wahlström — web shop
Norsk Svensk Guld — web shop
Introduction course
Glossary
Term (Swedish) | Meaning |
|---|---|
Annealing (glödgning) | Heating worked metal to soften it and relieve stress. Then pickle and scratch-brush it. |
Bench pin (filnagel) | Wooden block on the jeweller's bench, used as a support for sawing and filing. |
Binding wire (bindtråd) | Steel wire that holds parts together during soldering. Remove it before pickling. |
Emery (smärgel) | Fine abrasive cloth, on sheets, rolls or sticks. |
Fine-silver skin (kokhud) | White layer that forms on silver after annealing and pickling. Copper gets a pale pink one. |
Flux (flussmedel) | Paste that stops oxidation so solder flows. Keep the lid on; if it dries out, stir in a little clean water. |
Pickling (betning) | Removing oxides and flux in the warm citric-acid bath after heating. Use plastic tongs only. |
Polishing (polering) | Smoothing a surface to make it shine. |
Scraping (skava) | Removing burrs or cleaning a joint with a sharp scraper. |
Scratch-brushing (kratsning) | Burnishing with a brass brush. Use water and a drop of washing-up liquid. |
Solder (lod) | Alloy that melts below the base metal. "Hard" solder melts at a higher temperature than "easy" solder. Comes as wire, strip or sheet. |
Solder pallions (lodpaljor) | Small cut pieces of solder placed on the joint. |
Tumbling (trumling) | Finishing in a rotating drum with media, water and concentrate. See the tumbler. |
Whitening (vitkokning) | Raising the surface silver content and cleaning off flux: heat until grey, pickle, then scratch-brush. Repeat about three times, or until the surface no longer oxidises. Don't melt the solder. |
History
The propane soldering equipment was removed in autumn 2023, and the Lötstar 141 arrived in spring 2024.
The room was built in summer 2025 as part of the metal workshop remodel. The walls are steel studs with fibre plasterboard and rock wool for sound insulation. A window links the room to the rest of the workshop, and the door is reused from the old textile workshop.
Gallery
Construction, 2025: