Tips & Techniques: Annealing

Tips & Techniques

 A Discussion of Jewelry Making Tips & Techniques

A little over a year ago I started exploring a new realm of jewelry making techniques to increase my skill base and was very, very excited at the thought of finally being able to use the new the mini-torch I added to my tool collection – I’d finally be able to anneal, solder and apply color to my designs.  You see I’ve been creating wire jewelry for several years and have gotten very comfortable with my abilities in cold join jewelry making creating well over a hundred one of a kind earring designs, bracelets, pendants and necklaces, and I felt it was time to fulfill a burning desire (no pun intended) to increase my design knowledge and skills I desperately wanted to freshen-up my range of jewelry offerings and add a new level of quality in craftsmanship, and design.

I’m not a person that starts out slow deliberately practicing a new technique until they get it right to their own brand of standards, I’m not hasty either, I just learn better in a hands on environment and I like to jump right in and get my hands dirty from the start, learning what does and doesn’t work with every step of the process as I create each new piece. This I think is where expertise comes to the forefront of a passionate art such as jewelry making, painting, and sculpting to name a few, but our focus will remain on wire jewelry making techniques for this article series so I invite you to get comfortable at your work bench and let’s get right down to business because I want to tell you more about a new technique I learned recently called....

 

Annealing

With the new skill of annealing and heating the copper and silver wire I typically use in my sculpted wire jewelry designs I easily can sculpt the wire into different shapes and give each piece a different finish. One of my favorite pieces to create is earrings another favorite is rings which I am still working diligently to seamlessly create. I love these two pieces which are staples of my everyday ensemble creating simple designs because simple elegance is timeless. Annealing helps to simplify the creation of my sculpted wire designs because by definition annealing is applying heat to soften the wire rendering it malleable which enables you to easily bend it into coils, circles, any geometric shape or arch your sculpted wire design calls for. What’s important to note here is that all metals have different temperature points at which they will begin to melt and each needs to be quenched in water to cool properly and for you to be able to comfortably handle and manipulate it into your chosen design. 

You can use this chart that I have re-created for you to determine the best annealing temperature of the metal you may be annealing.

Annealing Temperature Chart

METAL	ANNEALING TEMP	MELTING TEMP	QUENCH
Copper	1110-12900	19750	Immediately
Silver	1110-12000	16350	Below 9300
Carat gold	1200-13800	1535-18300	Refer to technical data
White gold	1200-13800	1670-24000	Refer to technical data
Platinum	1110-18300	31900	Air cool then quench in water

Chart by Jinks McGrath excerpt from the book The Encyclopedia of Jewelry Making Techniques; 1995 (Running Press: Philadelphia; London)

 

Annealing with a Torch

A good way to anneal your wire, flat, or plate metal is to use a torch where you can regulate the heat produced. I have found it easier to use a propane torch rather than my mini-torch which uses butane. In my experienced opinion the butane mini-torch is a larger version of a cigarette lighter in regards to the heat it produces, I found it took longer for my wire to reach the proper temperature of annealing even when my flame was turned on high, so I think I’ll just keep mine in the kitchen to brown the tops of my Meringue peaks and crisp the caramel on those delicious Crème Brule’ cups. 

Annealing Torch

Tips: the Annealing Flame

The most effective flame to use when you anneal is a large “reducing” flame where the tip of the orange core meets the blue outer shell of the flame (about an inch from the torch tip). Run the flame over the surface of your metal until it reaches the appropriate temperature and turns color, with copper it will turn pinkish and with silver it will be grayish just before they turn red. You will notice that when you move the heat source copper wire will show the colors of a peacock, silver will be black this discolored coating is called fire scale and can be removed when placing your soldered or finished piece in a pickle solution. I suggest you watch carefully not to overheat your material and risk reaching its melting temp or having it turn brittle when placing it in your quenching bath.

Don’t let the thought of applying heat to your material intimidate you, it’s so much fun and really not as difficult as it sounds. But you decide how to proceed may want to start slow and practice on left over scrap wire until you’re comfortable annealing because believe me, I’ve melted my fair share of scrap wire learning just the right temp, the right position, and duration to hold the flame over my work. You know what works best for you in learning a new skill so use your best judgment in the use of your new technique and jewelry making skill when creating your fresh new design.

Annealed Copper Wire Earrings

Oh, I almost forgot, another important detail you’ll need to consider when choosing wire materials is the hardness or tensile strength of your wire. Wire created specifically for jewelry making is sold in several different strengths; soft, dead soft, hard and half hard, keep this in mind when you’re purchasing your design materials because your materials strength will define the process you’ll need to use in the creation of your wire jewelry or wire sculpture design. I do not recommend using a soft or dead soft fine silver wire for making rings because in my experience even work hardening (hammering) in the sizing process will not strengthen the ring to render it non-malleable leaving it vulnerable to becoming misshaped. You don’t want leave your customers disappointed with their purchase so choose to use a stronger material when creating your gorgeous ring designs and I’ll talk more about soldering and pickle solutions at a later time so until then, get your gloves, your safety glasses and your torch and start annealing, I can’t wait to see your new wire jewelry designs.  

Do you create hot join, fused metal or wire jewelry and have any advice for someone just starting out? Please leave a comment and tell us about your experience.