Fresh nugz

[Cerberus]

I have earned the respect of a jeweler in town and he gifted me half a gram of local gold nuggets. He has done two custom rings for my wife and repairs too and i have given him a few pipes as tips. I got into the gold immediately to see what it does and these are initial test pieces. Looks like it has a lot of silver in it givng it a white look, it looks silvery on the punty too. As i applied more fire to the fume nug the gold came out more "goldy", pendy on the right. Using a bigger flame to fume on the marble it came out super cool, the side nearest the light source shines greenish and the opposite side is purple. I have not seen that effect before and I'm looking forward to exploring that in more detail and on some bigger pieces. This river gold is much different than the 22K wire and .9999 chip that i have, neat stuff, I gotta find more before too long. I'm really getting into the gold fume lately, i love it.

[Jackass Glass]

I can usually pull a decent clip of gold dust out of the rivers here. I'll let u know what I find when it warms up soon

[Cerberus]

There is gold all around me, Nevada is loaded with it. The Comstock mine in Virginia City is only a few miles up the hill. I have zero interest in prospecting but my daughter is intersted in geology so we are planning some rock hound trips this summer, lots of neat stuff not far away. Supposedly opals to the north, thats high on our list!

[Cerberus]

These are fresh from the kiln this am. If there is a way to directly post videos I would love to know how.

[BORO]

Your close to "hallelujah junction." It has some amazing crystals. If you find scepters I would buy them.

If you did go north for opal, I recommend The royal peacock opal mine.

[Cerberus]

I have been working diligently on my fume since I got this gold so I could make something nice in return. This piece turned out really nice IMHO so i'll deliver today.
Light flash of silver then a bunch of gold, all outside work then three cycles in the kiln. Should color up nice in a few sessions I think.
I have a video too but don't know how to upload it properly.

[BORO]

Cool, looks good.

raw nuggets usually do contain other traces of minerals.

obviously yours has silver, the sliver burns off the nugget much faster than the gold, the longer you use a gold nugget to fume, the more gold fume you get. I'm sure your aware of that.

(the third piece you fume will be more gold vs. The first one. Just like your pictures.

[Cerberus]

Thanks BoRo. This is my first experience with nuggets so I did not know that but now that you point it out yes that makes sense. I have observed the change in fume colors, and I did indeed notice how much silver is in these nugz.
When these are brand new the first few blasts throw a big shower of sparks. I mount gold on a stub of cobalt, could NOT get it to stick to quartz. Silver sticks but falls out all the time so I went back to boro mounts for silver too.

[Jackass Glass]

great piece! colors are sweet. i just dont love to mess with fume for health reasons. but its a great talent

[Swim]

flatten your quartz out and then heat the fuck out of it and push a little bump into the flat quartz for your gold or silver, its absolutely the best way to fume and not worry about losing your metals. I need gold myself, trying to decide where I wanna get it this time. I have never even used he pure stuff, I alwas buy placer nuggets off ebay, fantastic results IMO

[Cerberus]

He loved it and that makes me happy. Gotta take care of those who take care of me.

flatten your quartz out and then heat the fuck out of it and push a little bump into the flat quartz for your gold or silver

Maria on the end with dimple is how i set up my rods, the gold ball always falls out tho. Do you mean flatten like lollipop or maria? I'll make another this weekend with a deeper dimple. The quartz rods probably put as much gold on the floor as on my work but I'll try again.

[dustyg]

He loved it and that makes me happy. Gotta take care of those who take care of me.


Maria on the end with dimple is how i set up my rods, the gold ball always falls out tho. Do you mean flatten like lollipop or maria? I'll make another this weekend with a deeper dimple. The quartz rods probably put as much gold on the floor as on my work but I'll try again.

Mine's doing better than when I started out with it. You might try putting a drop of silver in there, and burning the heck out of it - maybe rinse and repeat. I think mine developed some roughness that helps hold the bit of gold.

[Swim]

like a lolli pop, for sure gravity is a factor, I will still blow the gold off from time to time with my flame and it can just fall off. The spot on my cinder block in front of my torch is dedicated to 2 pieces of quartz like this, obviously one silver and one gold. Flatten it like a lolli so you can lay the gold facing up, because yeah it will wanna fall off. I am sloppy as fuck by nature, so this helps me alot, I for sure know people who seem to be able to keep there metals going fine on clear boro but I will never be that guy lol. Everyones bench is different, but I bring up the dedicated spot in front of my torch because I get the shit mixed up with boro rods I am picking holes with and it just gets jostled and lost in my mess, and of course the gold falls off. I cant live without the quartz rod though, specifically for gold because I am a shitty fumer and often have to fume for to long with gold. If your impression is on the end of your rod, it will still fall off just with gravity alot of the time.......

[Nomad]

You fume a little sterling silver then coat it with 24 k gold twice?
Encase it so that it changes different colors according to how much gold burns off?
I got a lot of orders for silver and gold fume with no color.
I'm using 14 k gold though. I'm recycling old jewelry. It's stamped 14 k. I have an 18 k gold piece too next.
But maybe I will get some gold off eBay since yours looks so nice. A lot of purple and not blue.

[Nomad]

14k gold ring

18 k gold ring

[Nomad]

Something like this?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/322548434711

[Nomad]

Or this?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/262770044794

[Cerberus]

If asking me i have a sall piece like your first link, the stamped chip, that i got from a local gold/jewelery shop a year ago. The BB's would be great too tho.
The particular gold subect of this thread was sourced from a jeweler who got it from another local who panned it from the Yuba river not far from here. Nevada was founded on mining silver and gold so it is easy to get here.
There are many threads covering gold and silver alloys so I won't get into it. You will for sure get different (many would say "better") colors from .999 or .9999 metals than sterling or 14/18k gold. If your customers are happy with what you produce today i say stick with it, then when you have the funds or demand go pick up some super fine metals. I can get some gorgeous pinks and purples from gold.

[Nomad]

Are you using a surface mix or premix center fire on your torch?

[Nomad]

Premix torches get a different fume from my experience.