Tips & Techniques

Clean Up: After your piece is soldered to your satisfaction, it is ready to clean. Carefully clean the front and back of the piece with hot soapy water or flux remover. An abrasive cleaner and fine grain steel wool is effective for shining the solder lines. Remember, if all flux residue is not removed from the piece, the solder seams may oxidize over time. Oxidation is the crusty white buildup that sometimes appears on metal. Dirty solder seams may also inhibit the coating of patinas. If you would like your solder seams to be a color other than silver, apply a patina to it. Patina is a chemical that reacts with the solder and changes the color. Popular colors of patina are black and copper. Thoroughly dry the panel and apply stained glass finishing compound, a liquid wax, to further clean, protect and shine the solder seams. Wood Framing: Wood frames are available three ways: finished oak frame, 6 ft framing stock, and precut framing stock. You can buy oak frames with a gro

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