Now let’s get to the tips:

Make sure that the pieces you want to solder are touching as perfectly as possible – Solder does not fill gaps! If you can see light through your joint you need to work on it with files, sandpaper, sanding disk, etc. until there is no light coming through.

Clean your piece before starting to solder – any dirt that is caught in the solder joint will prevent solder from flowing. That also applies when you put your piece in the pickling solution and need to solder a little bit more – rinse it in water, because pickling solution also prevents solder from flowing.

When you hold your piece with tweezers, hold the tweezers as far away from the solder joint as possible in order not to draw away the heat.

Don’t forget to protect your piece with the BorciAcid/Denatured Alcohol mixture to limit oxidation and fire scale.

Don’t forget to put Flux on the joint where you need the solder to flow.

Always heat the bigger piece first, so you don’t melt the small piece before the solder flows.

Don’t keep your flame on the same spot constantly – you run the risk of melting the piece – move your flame back and forth.

Always remember – solder flows towards the heat source – in this case your torch. It also flows into a joint if you put the solder on top of the joint and joins the pieces. But solder does not fill a gap.

Adjust the flame to the size of the piece you are soldering. It takes some time and practice to find the right flame for the different pieces you are soldering.

When the solder starts flowing remove the torch – if you keep the torch on too long you can draw the solder away from the joint or burn the solder and create porosity on your joint.

After you finished soldering you have a few options to cool your piece. You can let it air cool by just leaving it on your soldering board, you can drop it in water to cool it down quickly or you can drop it in the pickling solution. Air cooling the piece will keep it annealed and softer to work with. Pickling solution will harden or temper the piece.

Remove the piece from the pickling solution only with brass tweezers or copper tongues. Do not use steel in your pickling solution – steel contaminates the solution and will turn especially silver jewelry pink.

Rinse your piece in water after removing it from the pickling solution.

If anybody has some more questions, please put it in the forum and I will try to answer them.