welding verses soldering question?

Question

when i describe my wedding enhancer and engagement ring being "melted together" i always use the term welded. however, i just got an e-mail from another user saying i am using the wrong term and it is soldering (forgive me if i am spelling anything wrong). now i was under the impression that both terms could be used since there is laser technology that welds the rings together, NOT SOLDERED!

so i am really asking two questions here:

one, can the term welding be used to describe "joining two rings" or am i just completely making up what the jeweler told me?

two, how can you tell if your ring is welded verses soldered? can you tell the difference from just looking at them?

either way, i will probably use the word welded. it means the same thing to me and people understand what i am saying. :P

Answer 1

I think you could use either term. In fact, "weld" can mean a number of things ( http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=weld ), so you can't go wrong. Soldering, however, is a specific process of fusing things together. So you could be wrong if you said it was soldered and it wasn't, but if you say it was welded you would be right according to the dictionary. Lest anyone confuse that with electrical welding with rods and cables, you could just say that the rings were "fused together by a jeweler." Good night!

Hmmm . . . the guy below me obviously didn't read my answer carefully if he thinks it's wrong. Welding (the specific process of fusing things together that people learn in shop class) is not soldering, but soldering is welding (by the most general dictionary definition). The key is that different definitions of "weld" are being applied. I said you should say that the rings were "fused" instead because not everyone knows the dictionary definition of "weld".

Answer 2

Technically when one welds, the metal of both pieces of metal it heated until it melts and a little of both pieces blend into each other while in the liquid state.
The noun Solder refers to a metal alloy with a relatively low melting temperature. When you solder, you heat both pieces of metal to a temperature that melts the solder, which sticks to the other metal when cool.
Perhaps jewelers have a different meaning for these words .
If you tell guys that 2 things that were attached by soldering were welded, they will think they are smarter than you.
Those other guys are wrong. Welding is not soldering. Soldering is like using a hot glue gun, but you use melted metal as the adhesive.

Answer 3

this means nothing and you can use what ever term you wish it really doesn't matter for your purpose.

but

welding you melt the parent metal (the ring) and use a filler metal that is physical the same as the parent metal soldering or brazing is at much lower heat and the parent metal is not melted the objects are bonded using the filler metal.
that being said i don't know if they weld or solder rings but there is a difference in the two processes.