Gather 'round for storytime, children. Let me tell you the tale of a torch-maiden's quest... I recently heard tell of argentium silver solder that stayed clean and untarnished during soldering. The idea of a silver solder immune to firescale seemed almost... legendary. I planned on using it with traditional sterling silver, and in my research I had not seen any reason not to. As I found out, argentium solder is a bit finicky. I needed to make one of my men's brushed silver bands in a size 10, a feat I had accomplished before, to be sure.

In my quest for the ring, I had some difficulty getting the argentium solder to flow nicely into the join, for reasons I couldn't find - the join was even, close and clean, the torch was hot. And still it resisted. I made 3 rings before I had one that I was satisfied with, and I think my sweaty, red-faced frustration was starting to alarm Sir Ben and the noble hound. This solder was Excalibur, and I was not worthy.

The curious part is that I returned late last night to do a quick solder on some knot rings, and gave the solder another try. Much to my surprise, it worked like a charm! The moral of the story must be this: Only she who is sound of mind and spirit may utilise this solder. Be sure and write that down, folks.