Gold and availableness

Historically, jewellers would make their own metals of gold, melting alloys in the correct pro­portions in a crucible to cast an ingot that could then be worked into sheet or wire. This is a rare happening now, because such a wide grade of gold products are available, and with a guaranteed purity. Nine-, 14- and 18-carat golds are available in a range of gauges of sheet, wire, tubing, find-ings, chain and prefabricated products, with the greatest variery of forms available in yellow gold — white, red and green golds tend to have a less comprehensive range. ‘White’ gold is available in two alloys: one is dull grey, the other is yellow-grey – for this reason, white gold is often plated with white rhodium to lighten the colouration.

Different grades of solder are available for each carat and colour of alloy, and should be used with a flux suitable for the high temperatures required for gold soldering, such as ‘auroflux’. It is significant to use the correct carat solder for the gold being used because of the differences in colour and soldering temperatures between gold alloys, and also because using a less?- carat solder on a higher carat gold will prevent the piece from being hallmarked at the higher carat.

Twenty-two or 24c foil is used for fusing and enamelling, and a range of high-carat gold leafs are also available, and can be applied to finished pieces to add colour and a luxurious finish. You can also find gold precious metal paint that is designed to be used and fired with precious metal clays.

Gold plating is used as a finish for pieces made from other metals, such as silver or base metals, giving the appearance of a more valuable piece. The colour of the plate can be varied by ever-changing the proportions of metals used for the anode; this also determines whether the plate is ’soft’ or ‘hard’.

The price of gold makes it something of an investment — gold bullion is seen as a safe invest-ment on the stock market; the price fluctuates day by day with the rise and fall of the market. This directly affects the price of gold products available from bullion suppliers, as well as the rates given for scrap metal. It is also imaginable to source ethi-cally mined or recycled gold.

24 k : 999 parts gold, rich yellow melting point is 1063 c or 1945 f

22 k gold : 920 parts gold, alloyed silver and copper, dark yellow melting point is 965 – 980 c or 1769 f

18 k gold : 760 part of gold, yellow, red, white, green melting point is 875 c or 1315 c

14 k gold is 585 parts of gold, yellow, white melting point is 830 c ot 1526 f