OK, I've had my first soldering experience.  Wheeeee!  I did find that trying to cut small chips of solder using a jewelers saw and an old flush cutter didn't, well, cut it.  I guess I should get some shears or snips.  Any recommendations?   Also, manipulating the chip of solder with my "hot pliers" didn't go so well either, and I wound up using the flux brush to get the solder where I wanted it.  This sorta worked, but didn't seem ideal.  Placing the solder seemed the hardest part of the process.

 I was initially puffed with beginners luck as the very first test piece I tried came out perfect!  I subsequently ruined two jump rings and got so-so results on a piece I actually hoped to use.  Oh well! C'est la guerre.

 Also, I thought I'd know firescale when I saw it, having read so many accounts, but...  on the one piece, the surface near the solder join came up roughened and lighter in color than the original sterling wire.  It largely polished off using rouge, but not completely.  Is this firescale, or a partially melted surface?  I did notice a coppery tinge under the flux after soldering which disappeared after pickleing.

 For the record I used easy solder (sheet), Rio Ready flux, butane torch, homemade citrus pickle (2 TBL sour salt to a cup of water) used "little dipper" hot.  

OH, other dumb question... how do you know when you have pickled long enough?

Right, placing the solder is sometimes the hardest part.  Anyhow, on with your questions.  Buy a pair of Joyce Chen kitched sissors at your local kitchen supply store to cut the solder.  I use a small tweezers to place the bits.  I also commonly use paste solder for jump rings.  Also, Argentium sterling silver will fuse and commonly doesn't need to be soldered.  Just close the ring like you were going to solder it, but instead hold the torch on the joint.  The surface will turn "cloudy" and then turn "very shiney".  At this point get the torch away or you will have a silver BB.  Firescale will look like a brown shadow on the surface.  Argentium silver does not get firescale.  It sounds like you slightly melted the surface.  You have pickled long enough when there is no more discoloration, or the surface has all turned a dull silver.

Soldering could be compare to war I suppose but it will get better. The suggestion about the shears is a good one. I use something similar  to trim a narrow strip along one side of the square of easy solder sheet and then use flush cutters to cut off small squares as I need them. Sometimes I use my titanium solder pick to place the solder, sometimes the flux brush and sometimes tweezers, whatever works at the moment. By the way have you looked at the soldering tutorial here at AJ? Fire scale is more like a below the surface stain that can't be polished away and can only be removed mechanically by file work or other abrasives and then polished. It is the oxidization of the copper in sterling below the surface of the work because of excessive heat. What you did sounds like melting of surface due to excessive heat. It is possible to fuse jump rings, even plain old sterling ones, on a clean soldering block with practice. The smaller ones are the hardest to do as the whole thing tends to go to a blob rather quickly. You have pickled enough when the silver is free of flux and is a flat, white, silver color. I use plain white vinegar, depending on how hot the pot is and how dirty the piece is, it takes between 15 to 30 minutes to clean a piece.

Thanks guys!  Bentiron, I actually was going to use vinegar, but I hate the smell!  I had some sour salt on hand and decided to try that... it seemed to do a pretty good job.  Do you have any idea how they compare in efficacy?  I did some web-crawling and found some good reports -- and it seemed to work -- but I have nothing to compare to.  Yet! 

 How about soldering surfaces?  I'm using a firebrick that came with an Art Clay starter kit.  It works, but it makes a goshawful crumbly mess.  A quick glance at Rio provided many possible alternatives.  Any recommendations?

I agree about the smell of vinegar.  I use citric acid in my classes.  There is good information at http://www.pajed.co.uk/fsofiles/CitricAcidPickle.pdf .  For a soldering surface I use both SoldeRite boards or a ceramic soldering board, but prefer the ceramic ones..  I use the SoldeRite boards in class because they don't break when the students drop them.

I have SoldeRite, ceramic fiber and old fashioned charcoal blocks. I use the ceramic one the most but much prefer the charcoal blocks. I have to run a binding wire around the edge to keep them from falling apart but is still like them best. Charcoal blocks have become so expensive for something so expendable that is why I use the ceramic soldering pads.

I use "aviation snips" for cutting solder. They are designed for cutting metal and require much less effort to squeeze than regular shears. It's the compound lever mechanism. You can find them at hardware stores or Home Despot. ;)

I bought regular aviation snips, for making straight cuts. They come with yellow handles.
The ones with green or red handles are for cutting right- or left-hand curves, respectively.

Janet