what kind of steel should i use to make jewelry?

Question

when i was muck younger and lived in mexico i used t make jewelry out of, what i thought was, stainless steel rods, by using a blow torch to soften it and just make all kinds of shapes. well the other day i tried to show my boy how to do do this and i went to nuy stainless steel rod but when i tried to warm it up with the torch it just sort of burned instead of softening. what gives?

Answer 1

Of the various steels, you would use stainless steel, but it is far more likely that if you were working it easily in an ordinary torch it was silver or something more dangerous to the skin. Silver and SS make items with little risk to the human body. Other things like tin, can cause serious problems. Depending on how old you are, silver cost a lot less in the past.
SS wire should turn red in a torch and work, but there are three major kinds of SS and they work differently (like some can be forged and some not, some magnetize and conduct heat well while others don't and do not.) You may have had one kind then and a different kind now.

Answer 2

If you are working with stainless steel, especially surgical grade stainless steel, it is very hard, or dang near impossible to manipulate with merely a torch. What you were working with was simply steel, which can be altered with a torch to any particular design, since steel comes in several different grades, surgical steel being the hardest to manipulate. I suggest surgical steel for jewelery simply because it holds up to wear, and resists rust, if properly taken care of, ie, wiped down with a silicone cloth after wear. I do wish you the best of luck in your business venture.

Answer 3

Check out "damascus steel".

I dont know how easy it is to manipulate, but its sure cool! It might not be able to be worked using a torch, I couldnt tell. I can tell that its beautiful. Check out the links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_steel
http://users.ntsource.com/~bluedevil/%20Tribune_damascus_steel.htm
http://www.arizonaskiesmeteorites.com/Damascus_Rings_Meteorite_Rings/Damascus_FAQs/
http://www.studionamu.com/text/damascusCollection.html