Linda Sandeman Jewellery

Linda Sandeman Jewellery Struggling with soldering? Helping home-based jewellery makers who want to solder with confidence, not guesswork using your own tools and your own space jeweller

10/09/2026

Day 8 of 30, The Invisible Signals.

You’ve spent an hour filing. There’s still a gap. So you reach for more solder, thinking at least it’ll hold.

Here’s what that blob is actually doing. It’s not holding your join, it’s hiding the one thing that would’ve told you why it didn’t flow properly in the first place.

A flush join gets its strength from full contact, both sides touching all the way along. A gap filled with solder isn’t that, it might hold for now but it’s nowhere near as strong.

I used to do this too. If a join was taking too long to get flush, I’d think “good enough” and bury it in solder.

Use a small pallion instead, about 1mm square. It won’t hide anything, so if it doesn’t flow right you’ll actually see why, and that’s the bit that teaches you something.

Haven’t seen Day 4 yet? That’s where the flush join test lives, go check it before this one.

Ever piled on solder just to move on? What happened? Comment below 👇

09/09/2026

Day 7 of 30, The Invisible Signals.

This is such a small thing, it’s easy to not even think about it. But it could be the entire reason your solder isn’t flowing.

You’ve filled the torch, only used it twice, so you assume it’s fine. But how long did you actually run it for? A torch that isn’t fully full won’t get you to flow temperature, no matter how much you blast your piece.

Before you blame the torch itself, check whether more gas needs adding. Add gas and you’ll hear the hiss once it’s full.

“Is my torch hot enough” and “is my torch full enough” are two completely different questions, and it’s easy to answer the first one wrong because you never checked the second.

Make checking the gas a regular habit, not just something you do once it’s already run out.

Let me know in the comments, next time you solder, was your torch actually full?

08/09/2026

Day 6 of 30, The Invisible Signals.

You heat your ring evenly. Go in with the flame. The solder doesn’t flow in a few seconds, so you keep the flame right there, waiting. But the moment you stopped moving that flame, evenly heated stopped being true.

Here’s the bit nobody tells you: evenly heated isn’t something you reach once and keep. It’s a moving target. The second you fix your attention on one join, everything else on that ring starts cooling, unevenly, while you’re not watching it.

Today I’m showing you why the fix isn’t more heat on the join, it’s bringing the whole ring back up before you go back in.

If you want the free guide that walks through signals like this one, it’s in my bio.

Have you ever kept adding heat to a join that just wouldn’t take?

07/09/2026

Day 5 of 30, The Invisible Signals.

You watch someone experienced solder and it looks effortless. Flame on, solder flows, done. So when yours balls up instead, you think you’ve done something wrong.

You haven’t. You’re just missing a signal nobody’s taught you to read yet.

Today I’m showing you what a solder ball is actually telling you, and why “trial and error” is the slow way to learn it.

If you want the free guide that walks through five signals like this one, it’s in my bio.

06/09/2026

Day 4

05/09/2026

Day 3 of 30, The Invisible Signals.

You’ve cleaned the metal. Sanded it down. It looks completely clean. You heat the join and the solder just sits there, or it flows halfway and stops dead.

Here’s the bit nobody tells you: “clean” isn’t something you can judge by looking. The metal can look completely clean and still fail the test that actually tells you the truth.

Today I’m showing you that test. Thirty seconds, and you’ll know for certain whether your prep was good enough, before you ever pick up the torch.

If you want the free guide that walks through signals like this one, it’s in my bio.

What’s the thing you’ve cleaned a hundred times and still weren’t sure was actually clean?

05/09/2026

Know why your soldering fails and how to fix it

04/09/2026

Day 2 of 30

03/09/2026

COMMENT “TORCH “

Featured Maker: Hollie Eccles of Curious MagpieI've admired Hollie's work for years, so getting to feature her as the fi...
05/08/2026

Featured Maker: Hollie Eccles of Curious Magpie

I've admired Hollie's work for years, so getting to feature her as the first maker in the Soldering Bench Journal meant a lot.

She's been making jewellery for over 20 years, trained formally, worked inside two proper jewellery businesses, and now runs from a garden studio in rural Leicestershire, casting rings and pendants from actual pinecones and acorns using a technique that's 5,000 years old.

And still, her first attempt at soldering silver ended in disaster. She panicked, overheated it, and watched the ring warp and blob right in front of her.

That's basically every maker's story at some point, mine included.

Read the full story here: https://www.lindasandemanjewellery.co.uk/blog/categories/featured-makers

Address

Leicester

Telephone

+447547739973

Website

, ,

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Linda Sandeman Jewellery posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Linda Sandeman Jewellery:

Shortcuts

Share