Gold and Silver Info

[Gold Fire Glass]

I have been a Full time working Goldsmith for just over 32 years now and as some of you may or may not know I 've been melting glass as my new medium of choice... It chose me
I am also a fevered student of all the great wisdom and ideas shared and presented on this Forum. I'm not there yet but humbley progressing and learning some what's and what nots too do. Mostly the " Nots " but getting alittle better day by day and that keeps me going to the torch everyday trying to get better.

Anyway I have seen a couple of questions regarding alloy composition in various different karats of gold , melting temps and a few other questions. This site I will send the link to is really a wealth of knowledge if you take the time to read the parts you seek to know or learn. It is actually quite an easy explanation of quite a few different ingredients , percentages etc. Anyway I hope this a help to someone . You decide if this info works for you or not , I'm just putting it out there, :D
http://www.attawaygems.com/NMFG/Gold_data.html
If you have any questions lemme know and I'll try to answer them the best I can.
Thanks

[Julian]

Nice, that chart at the bottom is interesting. Good to know what exactly is in the different types of Gold.

I haven't had good results using anything other than pure gold or silver for fuming, personally.

[Gold Fire Glass]

That's why I posted this chart . People were wondering why only 24kt and pure silver for fuming ? Now you can actually see why and what the different alloy's are made up of.

" 22kt works well too Julian " ( a little cheaper than 24kt too :bouncy: )

The lower karats of yellow gold contain brass and copper ! You think breathing pure gold fume is dangerous don't ever breathe heavy concentrations of brass and or copper fumes. THEY ARE HIGHLY TOXIC and store in the fatty tissues of your body to give you some real nice health problems later in life... Again be safe and use common sense and GOOD VENTILATION while fuming.
They don't show brass as an alloy for the yellow gold but trust me it is in the lower karat pre made alloy's that us jewellers have access to. It is calculated in the Copper side so the " percentages " of alloy remain the same .

[J Howard]

Nice, that chart at the bottom is interesting. Good to know what exactly is in the different types of Gold.

I haven't had good results using anything other than pure gold or silver for fuming, personally.


lol,


i don't really use pure gold OR silver anymore. i prefer the others for fuming

[hwcglass]

lol,


i don't really use pure gold OR silver anymore. i prefer the others for fuming

really?

[Shatner]

really?

Really. I get sweet electric blues from sterling silver. I use my old wedding band (ex-wife) from James Avery.

[J Howard]

yeah, i posted my silver fuming results a while back. i find i get way better colors with sterling. it is true, it's a little harder to fume with, but when you find the sweet spot it's so pimp. buy it in wire form, then just keep welding fresh dots on your quartz rod. it's about ten x faster than cutting chunks off a coin and trying to pick them up. responds well to compressed air flames, which is the key to getting purples, not just blues

[J Howard]

oh , and great use of an ex wedding ring! repped for evil humor

[Shatner]

yeah, i posted my silver fuming results a while back. i find i get way better colors with sterling. it is true, it's a little harder to fume with, but when you find the sweet spot it's so pimp. buy it in wire form, then just keep welding fresh dots on your quartz rod. it's about ten x faster than cutting chunks off a coin and trying to pick them up. responds well to compressed air flames, which is the key to getting purples, not just blues

You're the one who got me to try it with that post. I repped you for it back when you first wrote it. Much thanks, my friend. my silver fume looks much better!


oh , and great use of an ex wedding ring! repped for evil humor

I thought is was a great idea. A lot of people laugh at it. James Avery is known for their high quality sterling. I had none laying around. So what the hell. And it's my own little bit of therapy. She really fucked me over. Mentally and financially.

Thanks for the rep!

[Julian]

'lol'? Whatever makes you smile, I suppose. I tried sterling back in the day and had 0 luck with it. I don't want to fume with copper.

I gave up fuming in 2004, though, after inhaling more than enough silver and gold for a lifetime. Therefore I can't comment on recent experience.