I’ve been seriously neglecting the Jewelry Making reader mailbag lately. This question was actually posted in a comment, but I decided to move it up to the main page because others have asked this question before. And most importantly, I have no idea! I would one day like to experiment with soldering, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Tim W. asks:

Help! I need a reliable torch that has adjustable flames for small and large silver projects. The more I research the confuseder I get. Some say that acetyline has too much soot others say that propane is the way to go. I don’t know but we are having a hard time getting enough heat on larger projects to get the soldering done when I use a standard bernzomatic torch from the hardware store. Not to mention the flame getting smaller and larger it you tilt the bottle… What torch do you recommend?

If you make these torches or are a jewelry maker and have soldering suggestions, please leave a comment. However: while I don’t mind others pointing people in the right direction via commercial links in comments, please put your link in an “href” tag and don’t write out the entire URL - that tends to break my blog column formatting. Also, please DO NOT put 4-5 links, just the one will do!

2 Responses to “Mailbag: Soldering Torches”

PLEASE NOTE: All comments are moderated (So if you don't see your comment appear right away, don't resubmit it multiple times!)
  1. Tyler C Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 9:08 pm

    I use this torch for 95% of my silverwork. It’s cheap, it uses cheap fuel (propane), highly adjustable (small to med large flame), and can even use MAPP for a hotter flame, and it’s small and easily handled. Perfect for most soldering projects.

    http://shrunklink.com/abqw

    Hope that helps :)

  2. Dianne Lehmann Says:
    October 12th, 2007 at 11:46 am

    I really like acetylene for the fuel. I haven’t had any problem with soot. I bought a torch that has four different tips and find that the smallest and next larger tips are all that I need. And I’ve made some big pendants. If you are having trouble getting your work hot enough, it might not be the torch that you are using. Remember that whatever it is sitting on and the air around it is a heat sink. The larger the soldering block or pad, the more heat will be required. One person I know was using a third hand tool to hang her work in the air! There is a lot of air in most work rooms and you can’t heat all of it to soldering temperature. So keep that in mind. If you are interested in seeing some of my work, check out SyZyGy Jewelry on-line.

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