Bagwell Button, nickle silver, hard soldered

[Mark Behnke]

The plan is to fabricate a Button using nickle silver sheet stock and hard silver solders.
It will look like a little mushroom so I'm going to label the parts, Base Stem and Cap.
The base will be a 3/4" disc .040" thick.
The stem will be of several .040" discs stacked, drilled and tapped.
The Cap will be 3/4" dia. consisting of a base and dome with decorative layers (overlay).

I'm no expert at this but I have done two before and have done some silver work years ago. Just added it up, 38 yrs. ago. Get busy, time flys. There's easier ways to do this but I'm using the materials and tools on hand.

Oxy-propane torch and hard silver solders.

Here's a sketch of the basic plan. The overlay will change but the procedure won't.

First step is to cut out the discs. They make a disc cutter that works on the same principal as a paper punch but I don't have one so it's bandsaw, snips, grinder, and jewelers saw.

That's all for today, I'll post more tomorrow, Thanks for looking.

 

[Mark Behnke]

Solder time.
The cap is overlayed and soldered with hard solder.

Same with the stem.

The cap is placed in the dapping block and the ball peen is hit with a raw hide mallet to dome it.
I don't have the dies that match the blocks depressions, you can get a whole set at harbor freight for $40 or $50

Sanded the back flat and soldered to the back piece.

All soldered.

Should finish tomorrow.

 

[Mike Martinez]

Great WIP Mark. Have you ever tried using a Punch and Die set to cut your blanks?

 

[Mark Behnke]

Thanks Mike

I have been looking at them but didn't look at HF, thanks for the tip. I'm definitely going to get one.

Mark

 

[Mark Behnke]

I should explain a little bit about what I've done . Feel free to add or correct.

Started with Hard solder then went to medium.
X hard flow temp. 1490*
Hard- 1450
Med 1360
Easy 1325
X Easy 1325 best match for Nickel silver color wise do to yellow cast, the lower the temp the more zinc in the solder.

Flux- Handy flux, I think it is borax

Pickle- Cleans flux off, works best warm, be ware of fumes. Check with jewelry supply. Many types of all these products, I've only scratched the surface.

 

[Mark Behnke]

Put the 4-40 screw on the back and soldered, one thing that makes this way easier is to use a stand off for the stem but I didn't have any so like I said this is the hard way.
Thanks for looking.