...I am not a goldsmith, not even a student.
My primary care specialist is routinely in charge of those preliminary steps requiring a true professional (i.e. melting)and does help with any problem I encounter in the process,but due to the current situation this particular project needed my almost unassisted attention for several weeks.
More than anything else, I dig losing myself into leisurely filing a piece of good metal, with a backing of, say, South Indian vocal music or the Kanon Pokajanen of Arvo Pärt...