10K gold

Jewelry Discussion
1

I have been fabricating jewelry in sterling for about five years
now, but have decide that it is time I try working with gold. I
am hoping to use 10K, to start, so that I can get by without
spending a small fortune, unfortunatly, I have had trouble
locating a company that caries a good variety of 10K stock
material. Does any one have a suggestion? Thanks for the
Scott _

2

Scott, I suggest not working in 10k gold. It is rather unpleasent
to work with…dirty and hard…though it is more expensive,
starting with at least 14k will prove to be more rewarding both
in mastering technique and in your own enjoyment of your final
product…trust me, its worth it!

Susan

3 
I have been fabricating jewelry in sterling for about five years
now, but have decide that it is time I try working with gold. I
am hoping to use 10K, to start, so that I can get by without
spending a small fortune, unfortunatly, I have had trouble
locating a company that caries a  good variety of 10K stock
material.  Does any one have a suggestion?  Thanks for the
Scott _

Try Hoover & Strong (800)759-9997. Steve Brixner

4

Susan:

I was interested in your saying that 10 kt is dirty and hard. I
have zero experience in fabricating gold, but people tell me 10
kt or 14 kt hardness depends on how you alloy. Of course all the
jewelry store sales people want to tell you 10 kt is softer
because they want to sell you the more expensive 14 kt.
Comments, Susan, anyone?

5

I work with only 18K (no I am not a snob I combine gold and
silver together and 18K stands out more on silver than 14K)…But
I have heard from a number of my friends that 10K is a real pain
to work with…Start small if you want to work with gold- like
maybe start off by making bezels with gold and then combining it
with silver…This should give you a"feel" for gold…

DeDe

6 
I was interested in your saying that 10 kt is dirty and hard.  I
have zero experience in fabricating gold, but people tell me 10
kt or 14 kt hardness depends on how you alloy.  Of course all the
jewelry store sales people want to tell you 10 kt is softer
because they want to sell you the more expensive 14 kt.
Comments, Susan, anyone?

Jess, The reverse…24kt is the softest and goes back from
there…leaving 10 kt in the harder range… best wishes

cj
Gemstone Brockerage Associates Ltd. Telephone (518) 438-5487
P.O. Box 8930 Albany, New
York 12208
INTERNET ADDRESS
Http://www.sweet-sites.com/gba
Http://www.polygon.net/~3576
Email adresses
@j.lanese

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR EMAIL LIST OF FACET &CAB ROUGH AND FINISHED GEMSTONES

7

Jess,

It is true that the hardness of the gold does depend on how you
alloy. I don’t alloy myself though, so I am speaking as one who
buys stock from suppliers. In general…the higher the karat of
gold, the cleaner and softer that it is (again, allowing for
different alloy mixtures of course).

In my experience, working with 10k isn’t very rewarding for
fabricating, espescially if you are doing so with the intention
of eventually moving to higher karat gold. 14k or higher, is not
only easier to work with, but much more attractive in the
outcome. Also, because different golds are different to work
with, I would suggest learning on whatever karat content, and
alloy mixture that you eventually intend to be using…your
skills would be best developed in that manner.

My metalurgy skills are limited, so I won’t try to explain try
hows and whys behind it ( Im sure someone here can do a better
job in that department). I’m just speaking from bench
experience… Susan

8

It is true that the hardness of the gold does depend on how you alloy.
In general…the higher the karat of gold, the cleaner and softer that it is
(again, allowing for different alloy mixtures of course).

Hi Susan,

Using only gold, silver and copper, with 18k alloys generally
the ones with more copper are harder, with 14k the ones with
about 20% silver are the hardest. An 18k alloy with 5% silver
has a hardness of about 140 HB (Brinell), a 14k alloy with 5%
silver is about 105 HB. The hardest 14k alloys are about 160 HB,
the hardest 10k alloys are about 190 HB, one with 5% silver
about 95 HB. All annealed and quenched. You can, however, harden
all the alloys, an 18k copper-only alloy to over 285 HB by
tempering it at 250 C - 400 C for several mminutes, whereas a
14k alloy will not get harder than 280 HB. 10k alloys can be
hardened to more than 310 HB.

In Europe, 10k gold is not used, but there is much “jewellery”
made in 8k “gold”, and its really a headache to work with that
stuff.

regards, Markus