Soldering sterling jump rings

I practiced soldering silver jump rings a while ago. Ive done it a lot
of times and they turned all sorts of colors, i
don't know if it has to do with something im doing wrong or what. I
have shades of orange and brownish and black that they turned. Then I
realized, to know if they are normal looking or not, I would need to
pickle them. So I got a pickle pot and some citrex pickle. I took them
out after about a half an hour, and now they are all a powdery finish.
(this was the finish i expected after i soldered correctly) Are they
supposed to be shiny when taking them out of the pickle? Or do I need
to tumble them to polish? I am using hard self pickling flux and hard
solder.

Thanks for any insight
Nicki

On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 08:26:48 -0800, in ôõ Nicki wrote:

I practiced soldering silver jump rings a while ago. Ive done it a lot
of times and they turned all sorts of colors, i
don't know if it has to do with something im doing wrong or what. I
have shades of orange and brownish and black that they turned. Then I
realized, to know if they are normal looking or not, I would need to
pickle them. So I got a pickle pot and some citrex pickle. I took them
out after about a half an hour, and now they are all a powdery finish.
(this was the finish i expected after i soldered correctly) Are they
supposed to be shiny when taking them out of the pickle? Or do I need
to tumble them to polish? I am using hard self pickling flux and hard
solder.

Thanks for any insight
Nicki

Nicki,

your experience is how it's supposed to work. the metal will oxidize and form various
colors when heated and exposed to oxygen. Some fluxes will protect, but not all. You'd
need to use a type of flux specifically good at preventing fire stain and fire scale,
such as Prips, or others of that type, in order to keep the metal from turning colors or
oxidizing while soldering. These will also let the metal come out of the pickle still
mostly bright, rather than with the frosty white finish, since the white frosty finish
forms when the pickle dissolves the oxides that formed on the metal surface. When those
oxides form, the mess up the polish of the metal. The frosty white finish can be left,
if you like it, or polished, either by buffing, or in a tumbler, as you desire

Peter