Crash Test: Making stainless steel jewelry?

You have asked us many questions about the manufacture of stainless steel jewelry. How is this metal worked? With what tools? Is it difficult? In her workshop, our jeweler Lucie decided to test for you five techniques to work stainless steel: welding, cutting, drilling, hammering and engraving. Here is her feedback!

1. Why choose stainless steel?

Stainless steel, also called stainless steel, is an alloy of iron, chromium, nickel and carbon. We see it more and more on earrings, necklaces, bracelets or rings. And it's no wonder it's so popular for DIY costume jewelry design, because it has nothing but advantages!

What are the advantages of stainless steel?

• As its name suggests, it is stainless, meaning it is resistant to corrosion, heat, skin acidity, water... and therefore it does not tarnish, change color or rust.
• It is more affordable than gold or silver.
• It is particularly suitable for people sensitive to metal jewelry because it is hypoallergenic. Indeed, wearing stainless steel does not cause red patches on the skin or itching.
• Its color pleases everyone: men as well as women, but also fans of the color gold because stainless steel comes in a golden version. And it can be worn with any look.
• Finally, it requires very little maintenance. A few drops of white vinegar on a soft cloth is all it takes to restore its shine.

2. Working with stainless steel using traditional jewelry techniques

> Brazing: soldering stainless steel

My first test consisted in soldering stainless steel rings. First of all, you have to know that some types of stainless steel are easier to solder than others.
For my first test, I used a toad blowtorch and silver solder. This first attempt was successful: I had no difficulty soldering the rings.

Where things got a bit complicated was when I wanted to remove the oxidation and the traces of borax. In the dryer, nothing happens. The sulfuric acid that is used in traditional jewelry is not enough. Result: my ring remains hopelessly black!

So I thought about other techniques I could use:

• First, I tried to brush it off, but all my efforts proved useless. After a while, still no result! I give up, I move on.
• Then I tried to polish it with the Lustrebar paste and, little by little, I started to see the result. On the other hand, I spent a lot of time polishing just to remove the traces and the oxidation of one ring. With a lot of patience and a lot of elbow grease, I could hardly get the color of the steel back.

There are other welding techniques for stainless steel such as arc welding, TIG welding or PUK welding. However, these techniques require specific skills and experience to achieve quality results. And they require special equipment. Before you start, ask yourself the question: are you really ready to make such an investment?

I was able to testweld stainless steel with anOrion mPulse, a micro-welder with a pulsed arc welding system. It is perfect for making small quick welds on rings for example. On the other hand, the machine has a certain cost, you have to be sure before investing in this type of equipment.

> Bocil cutting

For my second experiment, I wanted to check if I would succeed in sawing stainless steel with the bocfil without breaking any blades.
Result: it is not impossible, but it is not that obvious! Again, it's a laborious and very time consuming job. Steel is a very hard metal to cut, so it is not really pleasant to cut. And on top of that, the saw blades wear out very quickly.
Conclusion : If you take your time, it is feasible. But I don't recommend it at all.

It is possible to laser cut steel with special but expensive machines. It is mainly a technique used by industry to cut stainless steel parts in large quantities.

> Drilling stainless steel

For my test n° 3, I tried to drill stainless steel. Again, I found it very laborious! On my first attempt, I broke my drill in the pendant I was making.
In fact, you really have to take your time (and believe me, it takes a long time) and lubricate your drill constantly. And then, maybe, if you're lucky, you end up piercing the metal.

> Hammering

Hammering consists in bringing texture to a metal. For my fourth test, I wanted to check if I could hammer stainless steel with a hammer.
It is possible, but to do so, you have to anneal it to make it more malleable. For steel, this technique is called a de-quenching.
Then, to get a hard steel, you have to do a quenching, which is a heat treatment to make it harder. To do this, it must be soaked immediately in water or oil after annealing. It is then left to cool on a jeweler's pile.

There are two problems with this technique:
1. It is important to know that when the steel is heated "to red", the properties of the steel will be totally altered. This is why it is not recommended to anneal steel.
2. By heating it, the steel will become black. It will then need to be polished (remember my first point).

> Engraving on stainless steel

Last experiment: engraving on stainless steel. Previously, I had already tried different engraving techniques on metal, including stainless steel. To complete this experiment, I did the test again with punches: same result! It is possible to punch stainless steel, even if it is less easy than with silver 925 and other metals, such as Gold Plated, Gold Filled ...
The only drawback, and not the least: the punches may be damaged very quickly. Yes, we remind you that stainless steel is a hard metal. The solution would be to anneal it. But as I said before, this can alter the characteristics of the steel such as hardening.

So I prefer not to punch steel. On the other hand, if you really want to engrave stainless steel, it is better to use your Dremel.

3. Doing classic jewelry mounting

In summary: working with stainless steel to make jewelry is really difficult. I don't recommend it at all for traditional jewelry making. If you still want to make jewelry with stainless steel, you should use jewelry primers and steel components, which are ideal for jewelry making.
For traditional jewelry making, I recommend metals like brass or silver.