timloco
has rocks in the head
Member since April 2012
Posts: 545
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Post by timloco on Sept 19, 2017 12:00:31 GMT -5
I've been trying to teach myself how to get silver to reticulate nicely. The idea is to get a thin layer of pure silver at the edge of your sheet by heating it, pickling, heating, pickling over and over until there's no copper in that outer layer. Then heat the sheet just enough to get the layer under the top to flow, creating cool patterns. I've seen a couple of ways to go about this. In the Complete Metalsmith, Tim McCreight recommends firing in a kiln at 1500, pickling, and firing again. He says you can do this with a torch by heating the piece for 10 minutes (!) seems like a long time to hold a torch to metal and not have it melt on you. I've seen a couple of web postings of doing this with a torch and pickling, 5-8 time just heating up the piece to dull red. I don't have a kiln so this is what I've been trying with some results. So I've been using 18 gauge 80/20 reticulation silver and when I heat the piece up to reticulate, it doesn't really crinkle up like videos I've seen on youtube. What eventually happens is that the top flows and when it cools it creates interesting texture. so, I don't think this is officially reticulation because the top surface melts but it looks cool. I need to get a roll mill so I can roll out these failures and try again but I did get enough made to make a pendent for my girlfriend. Anyone do this to silver? Is it just 18 gauge is so think it's hard to do on that? Here's what I got so far:
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Post by Pat on Sept 19, 2017 13:30:34 GMT -5
Not an expert at reticulation, but I heat the sterling until I can see the skin move, remove heat, cool, pickle, brush with a wire brush, and repeat a few times. I keep the mini-torch butane on the piece for about a minute or so at a time. Takes about three swipes. I haven't worked with the reticulation silver yet.
You can solder it on as usual --- even though it is bumpy.
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timloco
has rocks in the head
Member since April 2012
Posts: 545
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Post by timloco on Sept 19, 2017 17:38:50 GMT -5
Not an expert at reticulation, but I heat the sterling until I can see the skin move, remove heat, cool, pickle, brush with a wire brush, and repeat a few times. I keep the mini-torch butane on the piece for about a minute or so at a time. Takes about three swipes. I haven't worked with the reticulation silver yet. You can solder it on as usual --- even though it is bumpy. Cool, one of the videos I saw they were using a mini torch. I'm using an acetylene/air torch and I think it just gets way hotter quicker. So, you're not doing any kind of pre-treatment at all then? I wonder if it's just with the 80/20 reticulation silver where you have to get that fine silver layer going.
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Post by accidentalrockhound on Sept 19, 2017 17:53:35 GMT -5
Nice I seen some guy doing this on one of the many video's I watched. Nice to add textures. Like the pendant. Showed it to my lady. And now she wants a butterfly thanks a lot Tim.
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timloco
has rocks in the head
Member since April 2012
Posts: 545
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Post by timloco on Sept 19, 2017 18:03:18 GMT -5
Showed it to my lady. And now she wants a butterfly thanks a lot Tim. Haha yea I've given away a lot of jewelry to the women in my life - hand made jewelry is a great gift.
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metalsmith
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 1,537
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Post by metalsmith on Oct 10, 2017 12:24:39 GMT -5
Yeah that is reticulated. The top layer gets depleted by multiple heating to move the copper then pickling takes it out. Move the torch to train the pattern. It looks like you're there already. Just need to get creative which will come with experience.
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timloco
has rocks in the head
Member since April 2012
Posts: 545
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Post by timloco on Oct 11, 2017 15:25:54 GMT -5
Yeah that is reticulated. The top layer gets depleted by multiple heating to move the copper then pickling takes it out. Move the torch to train the pattern. It looks like you're there already. Just need to get creative which will come with experience. Cool. It looks like I don't have to use the 80/20 reticulation silver but it helps. I've got a batch of squares where I've treated them a little differently, just heating them up until they're dull grey but not all they way to where the metal is starting to glow at all, then pickle and brush, repeat. One video I saw on youtube the guy was saying you have to do this 30 times to get that layer going. I'm up to 20 or so and tried it out on one of the pieces and it wrinkled up nicely. It doesn't quite look the same as the stuff I tried before where I only pickled it and heated it 5 times, but heated it way hotter. For sure something to play around with but I'm getting some decent texture and it's fun to mess with. Here's 24 gauge 80/20 where I've heated it to not quite red, just enough to take the reflectivity out and make it dull grey. I pickled it, brushed it and repeated that process 5 times then heated it up to where the surface flowed just a bit along the path of my torch. It didn't wrinkle up or anything but it does have some texture. This one went twenty times, pickling, brushing, heating. The wrinkling is much more pronounced. It doesn't look like my first attempts where the surface is more of a molten look. I really got a nice layer of fine silver on this one.
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Post by Jack ( Yorkshire) on Nov 4, 2017 8:25:20 GMT -5
Great selection and every-time different
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Post by melhill1659 on Nov 6, 2017 20:00:16 GMT -5
I’ve reticulated someone else’s silver On Accident once. My first Silver class. Never heard of it till the teacher was impressed I did it 😂😂 I have no idea how I did it though.
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Post by Pat on Nov 6, 2017 20:05:32 GMT -5
Even though it ends up bumpy, you can still solder something on to it.
It adds s nice touch to pieces.
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Post by Pat on Jan 15, 2018 21:00:33 GMT -5
Not an expert at reticulation, but I heat the sterling until I can see the skin move, remove heat, cool, pickle, brush with a wire brush, and repeat a few times. I keep the mini-torch butane on the piece for about a minute or so at a time. Takes about three swipes. I haven't worked with the reticulation silver yet. You can solder it on as usual --- even though it is bumpy. Cool, one of the videos I saw they were using a mini torch. I'm using an acetylene/air torch and I think it just gets way hotter quicker. So, you're not doing any kind of pre-treatment at all then? I wonder if it's just with the 80/20 reticulation silver where you have to get that fine silver layer going. You have to get the fine silver layer going with sterling as well. No pre-treatment.
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