This blog outlines a few basics in jewelry making – tempers, gauges and annealing. Knowing about tempers and gauges will help you purchase the best sheet and wire for your jewelry.
When crafting jewelry out of metal sheet and wire, it’s important to know a few basics – like the gauge and temper of your material. This guide will explain each so you can make the right decision. We’ll also talk about annealing and work hardening, which are related to your temper. Below are definitions of our key terms used throughout this article.
- Temper – How stiff or hard your metal is. It’s measured in 3 terms usually – dead soft, half-hard, and hard. Dead soft is the softest and easiest bend. Hard is the stiffest and hardest to bend.
- Gauge – How thick your metal is. Gauge is measured by numbers, with each number corresponding to a mm or inch thickness. The higher the number, the thinner the metal is actually. Jewelers will usually work with gauges 10 to 30, but the scale starts at 1 and goes up from there.
- Work-Hardened – This refers to when your metal has been made stiff by working with it. That means bending, hammering, forming, or putting it through the rolling mill. Once metal gets work hardened you won’t be able to bend or compress it anymore. It becomes brittle and likely to crack.
- Annealing – Annealing is the process of heating your metal to soften it and make it workable and malleable again. Each type of metal has a different temperature that it anneals at, but in general you heat your metal to a dull red color. Annealing will bring your metal from a hard temper to a soft temper, so that you can continue to bend, hammer, and form it without the risk of damage.
Guide to Tempers
When purchasing sheet metal or wire, there will be a temper listed in the description. As mentioned, this refers to how hard the metal is. This happens during the manufacturing process. Part of the process is to run the metal sheet through a rolling mill to bring it down to the desired thickness, or gauge. To get wire to the correct size it is pulled through a drawplate. These processes work harden the metal. Unless the manufacturers anneals the metal after, they will remain at this temper.
Dead Soft
Dead soft is the softest of the three tempers used when buying sheet or wire. This means it’s really easy to hammer, bend, fold, texture, or form the material. You can even move dead soft material with your fingers. You’ll want to purchase dead soft material if you know you have a lot of that kind of work coming up.
Half-Hard
Half-hard material is right in the middle. It’s not too hard and not too soft either. It’s great for pieces that need some hardening done to them, but not a lot. It’s also perfect for items where you want the material to be work-hardened at the end, like cuffs.
Hard
Hard is the stiffest temper that you can purchase. It means it’s already work-hardened from the manufacturing process. It will be difficult to bend or form the material and is likely to crack if you do. It’s great for pierced pieces that you won’t be forming.
Be sure to shop our full selection of metal sheet and wire to find the perfect temper.
Halstead includes the temper on all sheet and wire so you can pick the best one for your project. We also include a temper chart on many of our findings where this information would be important – like earring hooks or jump rings.
Annealing and Work-Hardening
The nice thing about tempers though, is that you can easily change them yourself. Accidentally purchased half-hard wire? No problem! This is done through annealing, or using heat to re-soften the metal. Purchased dead-soft sheet but need it stiff? No problem! You can work-harden it, or make it stiffer, through a variety of ways (explained below). When metal is dead soft and fully annealed, the interior molecules are in a relaxed state; they’re all lined up and organized. When metal is work-hardened, those molecules are all jumbled up and can’t move. Annealing is the process of relaxing these molecules again.
Many jewelers have felt the effects of work-hardened metal. Sometimes you break a headpin or piece of wire when repeatedly trying to get a coil just right or your textured ring band gets some tiny cracks. This doesn’t mean you have bad metal, it just means the material has been hardened from too much movement. Bending, hammering, forming, twisting, and rolling your material through the rolling mill are all processes that will work harden your metal. You can feel this happening – the metal won’t move as easily the more you work it. It will be harder to form a ring around a mandrel or it won’t compress as much as it did during hammering. If you continue to move work-hardened metal, it will crack or break. It’s just too stressed out!
The good news is that if you want to keep working with it – you can anneal it! This is usually done with a torch. By heating the metal to a certain temperature, you relax the molecules and soften the metal. You can go through many cycles of work hardening and annealing in one jewelry piece. There is no limit to how many times you can do this.
When annealing, you are heating your metal to a dull red color. Once the red is gone, you will want to quench the material in water to keep it at the relaxed molecular state. Pickle your metal after to remove any oxides. You can also use flux as an indicator of annealing temperature. When the flux becomes clear and glassy, you’ve reached the right temperature.
Gauges
Metal thickness is often measured in gauge. This is a number that corresponds to a mm or inch thickness. The tricky thing to remember with gauge is the larger the number, the thinner the material. We have a great resources blog with a gauge conversion chart to use as reference. Both sheet and wire are measured in gauges. Selecting the right gauge for your project is important. You want the material to be thick enough to support the project, but also not add unnecessary weight or cost. The charts below outlines some common sheet metal and wire uses and their corresponding gauges.
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Another thing to consider when selecting the right gauge is the steps you’ll put your material through. Are you running sheet through the rolling mill with a patterned plate or hammering metal to give it a texture? Both processes will thin out the metal. Make sure to take that into account.
Jewelry Metals
It’s important to choose the right type of metal sheet before choosing the gauge and temper. Each material has different working properties, and this may affect how often you anneal your work or the processes you apply to it. Copper is incredibly malleable and is great for fold forming. Fine silver has no added metals to harden it and is excellent for bezels. Sterling silver has the addition of copper, which stiffens it up and allows it to be used for earrings, rings, cuffs, and more. The higher the content of gold, the softer the material. 14k gold is often used for wedding bands because it can stand up to daily wear. 24k gold is almost never used in jewelry because it’s too soft. Check out the articles below to learn more about the different metals used in jewelry making.
Pattern and Gallery Wire
Jewelry wire doesn't always have to be plain. There are plenty of patterned wires on the market that you can use to create ring bands, bangles and more. Be sure to pay attention to the thickness or gauge to determine if that pattern is right for your project. In addition to pattern wire, you can also purchase gallery wire. Gallery wire is thin, patterned and decorative wire that can be used to bezel set cabochon stones. It doesn't end there though! It's great to solder onto a flat band for added interest, and to ensure the ring is still comfortable for your customer. SHOP PATTERN AND GALLERY WIRE >>>
Related Articles:
Types of Silver – Learn the Grades of Silver Alloys and Purity in Jewelry
