I am so confused by watching all the videos and reading about soldering.  I guess what I am confused on is what is really needed.  I bought some flux but unsure if it is the right one, it is this one: http://www.contenti.com/products/soldering/510-824.html.  Is that the right flux?  In one video the woman did not flux her sterling, she was using solder paste.  In the other video the man used wire solder and dipped his sterling in a Boric Acid/denatured alcohol solution.  I know that paste has flux already in it, but I am still confused on why she did not dip hers in the solution.  And why did he use the boric acid/denatured alcohol solution and not flux?  Why did they do it differently?

 I already have copper wire and am thinking about getting sterling silver wire.  I know that they do not make copper solder and the link will show but copper is alot cheaper to start with and I already have it.  Is there anyway to get around seeing the solder on copper? I prefer the look of sterling, but like I said above copper is cheaper and I already have it.

I read that for jump rings, easy paste and easy wire solder is best.  And for everything else hard is best.  Is this correct?

 Here is the list of supplies I have already got.  Is this everything?

 Torch

Pickle

Pickle Pot

Copper Tongs

Solder Tweezers

Self locking Tweezers

Quench Cup

Fire Block

Flux

Sorry for all the questions, I want to make sure I have everything correct before I start.

Thanks!

Jennifer

Looks like you have all of the equipment needed. I have two types of flux on my bench, Battner's self-pickling and a paste flux. I don't use paste solders, others swear by them, others at them. The alcohol/borax mix is another type of flux, more home made traditional in nature, very good too. How you solder depends a lot on your level of experience. The way I solder is to pickle any new metal to clean it of any contamination, rinse, dry, then I apply the type of flux I'm going to use. The one I use the most is Battner's, it just works well most all of the time. Lack of success in soldering seems to more related to heat than to flux.

There are solders for copper but I have not used them. I just use easy solder for it. I make items out of copper and don't worry about he difference in color. It is just part of the piece.

I use easy solder for jump rings. I use a solder pick to place my solder right on the join and then pull the heat away. I have for solders: Hard, Medium, Easy and Easy easy. I use Hard and Easy the most, medium and easy easy the least. 

I've recently started soldering so I can relate!  There are different chemical compounds that can act as flux, borax is an inexpensive one.  There are also different pickles.  I did a bit of initial soldering with paillards cut from sheet solder, flux, pickle, quenching...  but I'm one of those who is coming to swear BY paste.  I have a self-fluxing, self-pickleing paste from Rio that's working very well for my application with much less setup and cleanup overhead.  I can clean the metal, heat it briefly with the torch (I'm just using a little butane torch) place the paste, hit it with the torch, let it cool and go scrub it in the sink.  But I'm typically making one or two modest sized joins on a wire form that aren't structural, they are basically just to secure loose ends that might catch on clothing.

I think harder solders make a slightly stronger join ( I'm not actually 100% sure of this) but one of the big reasons to have a variety is if you are going to be doing sequential soldering on the same piece.  Then you can start with the hard solder and progress to the easy, and you don't melt out your previous join when you do the next one.  The hard->easy nomenclature refers to the temperature at which it flows.

One thing I did fairly early on was to get a ceramic board -- it's much less messy than the fire brick and doesn't shed all the time (but you can't dig into it to support pieces, so  the fire brick is still around).

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Hi Jennifer,

you have all you need for basic soldering. As A pickle I prefer the really harmless pickle from 10% Alum-salt + 90% water, working temperature about 50 degree Celsius.

You can solder solder copper with silver solder also. The disadvantage is, that the solder seam looks silver-colored and is to see very clear. The advantage from silver solder on copper is, that the silver solder flows more easy than the copper solder.

If you use soldering-paste, you do not need no flux. Important is only, that the areas where the both pieces are in contact are really clean. You need flux only, if you are  with silver-soldering-sheet or soldering wire working.

The terms soft, medium or hard of the silver solder is only a description of the working temperature. Soft means a low temperature, hard a higher melting temperature. The soldering seams have all the same solidity, equal if you solder with easy solder or extra hard solder.

Apart from that, soldering is just a matter of practice. Very important is, that the torch is not too small. If you do not get enough heat, it is impossible to make a good soldering job. 

Edmund

 http://cs.artjewelrymag.com/artcs/forums/p/14828/60651.aspx#60651

Under this Link you find a short information about torches.

As to the type of soldering surface there are several to choose from. I have the soft fire brick, always shedding material, charcoal block, my personal favorite, ceramic of different types. There are advantages and disadvantages to most but the most frequently used now seems to be one of the ceramic types. I have handy some iron(steel) binding wire to make risers to get the silver to be soldered up off of the fire brick surface to get heat under it heat more evenly. This is beneficial for large bezels.