[Jewelry making - Article 00953] - Re: [Orchid] Heat Hardening Fine Silver

[Peter W . Rowe]

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>     simply rub the headpins between some leather stropping,& tap the
>     jump rings against a rubber anvil or filing block with a leather
>     hammer to work harden the pieces..often just a well used (and
>     therefore less abrasive) polishing cloth is enough to work harden
>     pins and rings..using thick enough wire for the rings, even in.999
>     is adequate so they will not bend or distort.. 

    This reminds me some of the homeopathic medicine ideas wherein some
    agent presumed (seldom actually tested in any way) to help with an
    illness is diluted highly, then a bit of that solution is again
    diluted, and the process is repeated until the chances of any
    individual molecules of the original theraputic agent even being in
    the solution is very small, and this solution now is essentially pure
    water with nothing in it, yet is claimed to have retained some sort
    of "memory" of the theraputic agent, and thus to be effective as a
    medicine. 

    if you want to believe in homeopathic medicines, be my guest.
    They'll do no more harm than a drink of water, or whatever else the
    carrier solution is, but don't expect them to have anything but a
    placebo effect. 

    And with work hardening, the only way a metal work hardens is if the
    metal actually deforms. Friction, sonic waves, light shock vibrations
    from a gentle rubber mallet, or similar good wishes aimed at the
    metal won't do anything but give you some physical exercise. The
    shape has to change and the elastic limit of the metal exceeded so
    that the crystals it's made of become distorted and stretched, and
    the grain boundaries between those crystals become also stretched and
    distorted. If that doesn't happen, the metal is not going to be work
    hardened. 

    To do it doesn't need the metal to be squashed flat. Bending it back
    and forth or twisting it may distort the crystals and work hardening
    it while maintaining most of the overall shape intact. Tumble
    polishing with steel shot rubs the surface hard enough to burnish and
    flow the surface layer of the metal, so even if the overall shape
    remains the same, metal has been moved, crystals have been distorted,
    and work hardening has taken place, at least on the surface of the
    piece, which is often enough (tumble polishing with steel shot is
    often one of the best ways to address the OPs needs, by the way,
    because it does give some hardening as well as improving surface
    finish, but without greatly distorting the overall shape, so long as
    the work has no sharp crisp edges that would be rounded over too
    much.). 

    Note that for any of this, the elastic limit of the metal has to be
    exceeded. Bending it a little, just to the point where it will spring
    back to it's original shape causes transient stress, but little
    permanent hardening. After a very long time of repeated instances, it
    might start stress cracking in some metals, but it's not actually
    distorting and reshaping the metal crystals, so it's not actually
    increasing the hardness. If it's bending and flexing enough so it
    does NOT fully spring back, though, then it will be increasing the
    hardness. Slowly, but nevertheless. 

    A polishing cloth is not going to harden the metal at all, unless
    you've found a way for it to be changing the metals structure. Same
    thing with a gentle rubber mallet or rubbing with a leather strop.
    The rubber mallet, if used hard enough to flatten, or significantly
    flex the metal, might make a difference, but that's not what you've
    described. A steel hammer, enough to slightly flatten the rings or
    wires, is more what's needed. With straight wire, twist it. Keeps
    the shape, but distorts the metal, thus hardening it. Remember, it's
    not enough to simply surprise the metal, wake it up, polish it, or
    send some friendly vibrations and karmic energy through it. The metal
    crystals have to be changed in shape permanently, and the boundaries
    between the crystals likewise flexed and stretched. 

    Remember too, that fine silver work hardens fairly slowly. That's
    why it's popular for things like bezel wire. To get any significant
    degree of real hardening, you have to work it equally significantly. 

Peter
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