Inspired by British Master Goldsmith James Miller, these titanium strips can be easily bent into a wide range of specialized custom clamps for jeweler’s hard soldering operations.
Titanium has several advantages over traditional steel clamps when it comes to soldering. Solder doesn’t stick to it. Enamel doesn’t stick either. It stays strong when red hot. It doesn’t erode and flake away at heat, so your clamp tips can be smaller. Most importantly, titanium doesn’t transfer heat nearly as quickly as steel clamps, so it interferes with nearby joints less than steel clamps do.
These strips—made in the USA, are sold in a pack of 10, annealed “blanks” as straight 4″ strips, to allow you to bend your own ideal clamp designs. Each soldering situation is different, every jeweler is different, and each solders in their own unique way, and will need clamps customized for their own personal style, or unique need. The titanium strips are fully annealed, and can be bent and filed to suit in minutes.
To date, we’ve found several uses for them:
- holding ear wires during soldering
- holding bails and jump rings
- re-setting sweat soldered panels that had warped during the first soldering
- clamping several items together during soldering
- soldering hemispheres into a full sphere
- holding spheres onto ring shanks…
The list will go on.
