This is a picture of my acetylene/air torch set up. Do you want to know how long I have had it? Almost a year. And do you want to know how many times I've used it? That would be once! And I only managed to fire it up, I didn't actually make, melt, or solder anything with it. I am terrified of it. I can use a kiln and I love my small butane torch but this thing scares me to death. So one of goals (I love to make goals) this summer was to figure it out even if I blew myself up trying. I found the tutorial I had bookmarked last summer. I love the sub-title, "Conquer Your Fears and Commit to Your Craft." It's so serious and dramatic and artistic sounding. So I studied it and the instructions which came with the torch (which, naturally, were a bit different) and I got the torch lit and I melted some copper. I even enameled some silver headpins. I figure if I use it every day, I'll get used to using it and I
can master soldering. I dream of putting some of my enamel work into bezels and taking my jewelry and supplies one step further. I admit I haven't completely conquered my fears but I'm working on it!
