Silver is extremely malleable and ductile and as such, it is highly preferred by silversmiths for making silverware and silver jewelery. Silver craft takes years to learn as an apprentice to a silversmith, or in some college or university offering such courses. Perfection comes only with practice. However, the basic techniques can be learned by anyone who has patience, and the right tools!
Piercing: Silver is cut to form a basic shape or to make a decorative pattern with a piercing saw. When creating a pattern, a small hole is drilled in the silver sheet to allow the blade of the saw to be positioned. The blade is then attached to the piercing saw, under tension. Blades can be coarse allowing fast cutting or very fine for detailed work. The blades are delicate and can be easily snapped. As such, work must be done slowly. The blade is held vertically and metal is moved slowly to make curves or corners. Blades are also lubricated by passing them through beeswax, which makes cutting smoother. The work is supported on a bench peg which is screwed to a workbench having a V cut into it so that both the sides of the cut are supported. Small shavings of metal called lemel are collected from under the piercing onto a leather or paper cloth, which are then recycled into new silver.
Soldering: Pieces of silver are joined by soldering. Silver solder, that comes in various alloy mixes but mainly containing silver, is used for soldering. Silver solder melts at a very high temperature and so a blow torch is used. The temperature required to melt silver solder is very close to the temperature at which the piece being worked upon would itself melt. To manage the temperatures, soldering and other torch work is usually done in darkness so that the color of the metal, as it heats, can be used to measure the temperature of the piece. Silver solder come in soft, medium and hard versions having lower, higher and highest melting points. Pieces where multiple soldering is required use hard solder at first, and work down the grades with subsequent soldering so that each addition does not melt or distort the previous one. Lead solder should never be used as its high temperatures cause the solder to run all over the silver, damaging and making it useless.
Annealing: The more a piece is worked, the harder and more brittle it becomes. Repeated annealing keeps silver soft, malleable and easier to work with. It is done with a torch in darkness. Silver is heated until it gives soft pinkish red glow, which is the point just before melting. The piece is then immediately cooled in cold water, which freezes the molecules into the alignment they were in when almost molten, and thus makes it easier to work. However, working with a torch leaves fire stain on silver which is removed by pickling.
Pickling: Fire stained silver piece is placed in acid bath, mostly sulphuric acid, to remove any oxidization before working on it. Pickling salts are used for works done on smaller scale. The pickling solution is kept warm to speed the process. The piece is then rinsed in running water, and cleaned with pumice powder to remove any remaining traces.
Shaping: The work is shaped into finished form in many ways, depending on the desired shape. Tubular shapes like rings and bangles are formed on mandrels that are held in a vice, while the annealed metal is hammered with a mallet of wood or hide. Bowls and other such curved pieces are domed on leather sandbags, wooden or metal doming blocks, using wooden or shaped metal hammers.
Polishing: Polishing is a long process, where a piece is rubbed with progressively finer wet and dry papers to remove any tool marks. It can then be wheel polished, polished with a fine polishing mop on a pendant drill, or barrel polished, where it is soaked in a soap solution with steel shot and rotated for 10 minutes or so. Polishing makes the piece smooth and shiny, free of all marks.
These were the basic techniques of silver craft. Silversmith, however, adopt many other advanced techniques also like hand fabrication, lost wax casting, die striking, and electroforming etc. For beginners, initially its better to work in a base metal such as brass or copper, as they are much cheaper metals to allow for mistakes.
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