Solder comes in 5 basic forms: pallion chips, paste, wire, sheet, and powder. I’ve tried four of these, unfortunately, the opportunity to try the powder form hasn’t come up yet because it is fairly uncommon in jewelry applications. But here’s information about each option and their best applications.Pallion chips: Pallion chips are tiny clipped pieces of solder alloy that can be easily moved with a solder pick. Exact size varies but these are often just 1×1 millimeters or even smaller! I was disappointed when I first tried pallion chips because I used them on a piece that needed more solder than the chips provided. My first reaction was wrong; now, I wouldn’t use anything else on chain links, jump rings or small soldering ornaments. I quickly learned with experience that the trick is to add more chips along a join if you need more solder. The small size of chips means you can easily scale the amount of solder you need in very small increments. When working on smaller joins, Pallion chips are a must!