How to melt silver to make jewelry?

If you want to know the process of how to melt silver to make jewelry, you’re in the right place. We will see in this post the melting point in degrees, some ways to do it. And we will also answer some questions that are popular. Are you ready? So let’s go dive in.

What is the melting point of silver?

As there is several types of silver, there is also several points of melting of course.

Sterling silver 925 – 840° Celsius (1544° F)
Sterling silver 990 – 940° Celsius (1724° F)
Pure Silver 999 – 961° Celsius (1761.8° F)

Now that you know that, you have to make sure which type of silver you’re working on, and so, prepare your necessary material.

What material do you need to melt your silver?

We will list it for you the strict minimum material you will need to do it just below:

• Silver
• Casting crucible
• Crucible holder
• Graphite stirrer
• Protection material (goggles, gloves, apron, face shield)
• Blowtorch (for DIY)/ oven
• Cast (ceramic, wood, clay)

That’s all what you will need to melt your silver in purpose to make what you want. Once you have everything, first clean your workshop and organize your place.

How to make your cast?

Buy a cast or make it is cheap and easy, you can chose first your material as ceramic, wood or clay. If you use clay or ceramic, you’ll have to bake it first at 841° Celsius (1545° F) to make it solid and let it cast your next piece on the best way. You can make it yourself by wood and clay YouTube is full of tutorials to show you how to do.

So now how to melt silver to make jewelry? The answer will come, don’t worry, we have to proceed step by step, right? Once your cast is made, and you have make sure it’s enough solid and durable to received the precious metal, you can begin to prepare your silver and the material just quoted.

How to proceed to melt the silver?

Put all the silver you need in the casting crucible and fix the crucible in a vise. Then start your blowtorch and with the other hand use the graphite stirrer to mix your melting mixture. Use a pair of pliers to stir the metal (better hold a cold piece with pliers than a hot piece with hands 🙂 ). It will take time as the metal will heat and change to red color, it should be ready when it hits a red cherry color. At that moment use the crucible holder and catch your crucible to poor the metal liquid into your cast.
If you don’t want to use your own silver jewelry or coins, you can buy some pellets that are made especially to be melt and make jewelry or ingots.

How to use an oven?

If you want to use an oven is even more easy than using blowtorch. Preheat your oven at the temperature you need. Mean while put the silver in your crucible then with the crucible holder put it in the oven and take care to let it standing. Be careful to don’t let it down or you will lose your content so the silver. Normally it would take 20 to 30 minutes before have totally melt. So open the oven door, catch the crucible and so pour it in the cast.

Anyway, can you work on your silver piece with no melting?

The short answer is yes, but to do it, you have to get a dexterity out of common. If you ever go to Asia, in some markets you will see craftsmen working on cold metal with hammer and pliers on a anvil. We still advise you to cast a bar or something enough big to can work on then try, it could be fun.

In conclusion:

To conclude this post, we just want to make sure that you understand the importance to work with security. If you make any mistake, you still can re-melt your silver and redo your cast to make a new one. Don’t worry if you don’t succeed at first, you might need sometimes before masterise the technique. Of course as always, you can leave a comment or any information that could help other people.