thanks, interesting process- I use to work with Gold- and after heating it, it would become softer, but after working it a bit, it would harden, had to keep going back and forth depending on how much work was being done to it- would use borax as a flux- from what i understood, heating would align the molecules, making the metal softer- working the metal would deform them, causing the metal to get harder-
i wonder what the lack of oxygen does to the metal in the hardening process-