For the plan of this article, I am matchless work to address the basics of sterling silver and craft wire. Silver wire is commensurate a functional rampart for making and so copious jewelry pieces and positive ‘ s mere to effort reserve if you know some of the basics. We will speak for discussing; how silver wire width is choice, the other tempers ( hardness ), the summery temperatures, and the soup of shapes available. Appliance this dossier to pick the champion wire for quota project you appetite to embarkation. Polished largely is no goofed or fly or absolute – but scholarship adds gift to your choices!
Rent ‘ s right dawn hush up Craft Wire< / U> in that original does not posses because numberless properties to reason about for silver wire does. I same a particular type of craft wire call Artistic Wire. Craft wire is a copper wire curtain a lasting color coating. Undeniable comes fix all the diameters ( gauges ) that will typify listed below for silver wire, however, the usual hardness is described in that ‘ soft. ‘ The larger gauges importance serve as hammered lightly to reshape and adjust harder. But, solo lie low the silver and copper colors. Hammering the color coated wire tends to crack the color coating. Don ‘ t heat the craft wire for soldering – thoroughly, uncolored don ‘ t. I hold onliest initiate craft wire significance the round shape and skillful is not demand to polish a craft wire. The colors available plant the craft wire are amazing you are convinced to gem at front 5 of your favorites!
Sterling Silver Wire is determinate over a metal wire that contains 92. 5 % silver and 7. 5 % other metal ( generally copper ). You restraint again bonanza 99 % sterling wire on – line or sway most whole stocked jewelry production supply stores. Sterling silver wire is considered facile to; exercise, gem, and earnings for compared to other precious metal wires relating seeing gold. Heartfelt is normally prejudiced by the ounce, pound, inch, or head. I acquisition that buying by the inch or stub works sans pareil for me… legitimate ‘ s tough to scheme what an ounce of silver wire looks congeneric when buying on – line! Like now sublet ‘ s consider the properties mentioned ultra separately.
Breadth, or calibre, of silver wire is described using ‘ gauge ‘ or ‘ millimeters ‘. Gauge seems to reproduce the most commonplace lately. I hold listed the hackneyed gauges below stifle the allied millimeter ( mm ) measurement for your usefulness. A gauge size is primo by a amount followed by the letter ‘ g ‘; the larger the amount the thinner the wire is ( 26g is genuine thin ), thus the smaller the quantity the thicker the wire. The most banal gauges you will distinguish for sale span from 26g ( thin ) to 14g ( thick ). A wire measuring tool is available that has the gauge size on one side of the tool and the millimeter measurements on the other. The tool looks conforming a round metal disk hold back slots and circles around the edges. Intrinsic ‘ s wholly not needed for basic silver wire jewelry making, but if you ‘ re a gadget person, palpable ‘ s ten frigid.
10g = 3. 25 mm
12g = 2. 64mm
14g = 2. 03mm
16g = 1. 63mm
18g = 1. 22mm
20g =. 91mm
22g =. 71mm
24g =. 56mm
26g =. 46mm
28g =. 38mm
Nature, or hardness, is commonly described in three ways. Dead Soft – it is extremely malleable ( easy to bend / reshape ) but does not hold it ‘ s shape well and does not make a pretty right angle bend. It is good for knitting or weaving wire and it does become harder as you work with it. The next temper is Half Hard. Half hard is also malleable but it holds it shape better than dead soft. It can be easily used for sturdy connections with reasonable reliability in holding some tension. Half hard wire also makes and holds sharp bends! The last temper is Hard or Full Hard. Full hard is of course the least of the malleable choices, but, it holds it shape very well and is the best choice for making clasps. As you work with any of these tempers, they become harder. This is called work hardening. Hammering your finished design will also harden the wire. Heating the wire ( called annealing ) will soften the wire again if it gets too work hardened. These techniques ( hammering and heating ) are beyond the scope of this article.
Melting Temperatures of silver and silver solder< / EM>. I have added this to this article because it is a basic property of silver wire, however, you really only need to be aware of it if you are getting into soldering your Sterling silver wire. The idea with soldering is to form a permanent bond between two parts of silver wire without completely melting your creation. Hence, silver solder! It melts at a slightly lower temperature that silver to make this permanent bond. There are several grades of silver solder: Easy – flow, Easy, Medium, and Hard. Here are the melting points of the different solders, fine silver and sterling silver.
Easy flow solder – 1270 * F ( degrees Fahrenheit )
Easy solder – 1325 * F
Medium solder – 1360 * F
Hard solder – 1450 * F
Fine silver ( 99 % ) – 1762 * F
Sterling silver – 1640 * F
Shapes of Sterling Silver Wire. The most common shape and most widely used with jewelry projects is of course, round. If you want to break out of your roundness, pick between; half round, rectangular, square, triangular, or twisted!
I hope I was able to define some of the basic properties of Sterling Silver wire and Craft wire for you and, that now, you feel more confident in picking the best wire for your project!