PB Cohen Creations

Remember the "U" ring I made last year?

I'm thinking about trying the whole alphabet. I have a few ideas, and I started with "A" — not because I feel the need to go in any sort of order, but because the design of the "A" is similar to the "U." Unfortunately, it didn't work out so well. It almost looks good, right? It isn't finished — polished or patinated.

I tried soldering the shank onto the hollow form "A" twice. The first time, I set everything up very carefully, took my time, was completely relaxed, heated everything, saw the solder start to flow, and realized that the "top" leg of the shank, marked with the red arrow in the drawing below, had raised off of the "A." Click on this drawing for a better look for the soldering set up.

The "A" was resting on two different heating blocks, so that the side getting the ring shank soldered onto it was more or less level. I held both the "A" and the shank steady with third hands (a steel cross-locking tweezer attached to a weighted base — they look like sticks on top of triangles in my drawing).

When I realized that "top" part of the shank wasn't on the "A" that first time, I made sure the solder on the "lower" part of the shank was still flowing, and I knocked those pieces apart. Then I cleaned everything up, and set the whole thing up again to solder.

The same way.

In retrospect, of course, I wouldn't have done it the same way, since exactly the same thing happened. I'm guessing it must have something to do with how well (or, rather: how poorly) the tweezers grip when they're heated. Or something. This second attempt, when I saw the "top" part of the shank lifting off the "A" I tried to gently nudge it back down. As far as that goes, it worked: now both parts of that shank are solidly soldered onto the "A." You saw that in that photo up above.

Unfortunately, it doesn't do me much good. You can see why if you look at these two photos:

Go ahead, take a close look: click, click, click, click, embiggen, scrutinize, pout.

In my attempt to nudge that top leg of the shank down, I pushed too hard, and unseated the strip of silver from the copper. So sad. It isn't going to fall apart or anything, but it's awfully ugly.

I think I soldered the "U" ring flat — the way it looks in the two photos above. I would have raised the shank slightly to center it on the "U," probably by placing it on top of a piece or two of sheet metal. Too bad I don't quite remember.

I think I can salvage the silver shank and the two copper "A" pieces — although I'll probably have to trim the latter. But, I don't think I'll try that right away. For now, I'll just leave it a sad little ring, solid yet ugly.