The metal melted lower than even extra easy solder! Acid tested as
gold, never did figure out what had happened to the ring to make
it sluff / melt so easy.
I’ve seen that too. The times I’ve had the pleasure of working with
it was pieces from a company that does remount shows. The store I
used to work at in the 80’s used to hire a company that does these
shows as an outside vendor, in the store. I’m not naming names, but
they also do “Going Out of Business” sales and all that kind of
thing. Pretty much anybody that’s been at this at the retail level
for a while in the US is familiar with, or at least has heard of this
company. Full page ads in National Jeweler, etc.
Basically, a retail store hires them to do these big two or three
day remount events. They market the heck out of it, hang bright
orange banners all over the place, put ads in the paper, send out
flyers to the store’s customer list and on the days of the sale,
bring in a goldsmith or two, complete with benches and tools, and
hundreds if not thousands of different styles of mountings. Customers
bring in old jewelry, pick out a mounting and the goldsmiths do head
and sets while they wait. They can be real money makers for the
business that hires them. They pay their traveling goldsmiths pretty
well too, with really good benefits, or at least they used to. But
they are not all that concerned with quality or long-term happy
customers. They don’t really have to be, they are in another city in
another state next week. Some have called them jewelry carnies
(people that work in traveling carnivals, many with a
less-than-honorable reputation for those not familiar with the term).
The metal they use in their mountings is really strange. It has a
slightly lighter yellow color than most 14K alloys and as Mark
wrote, it melts at just about the same temperature as medium or even
easy solder. It’s a real PITA to size or move heads around when the
customer decides they want this stone here and that one there,
instead of where they are, which is all but inevitable. I don’t know
what the alloy is, but I’d bet whatever it is, it’s cheaper than
dirt.
Paul, I’m not sure, but your white gold ring may be the same sort of
thing. White gold was out of favor back when I was messing around
with the jewelry carnies, so I never saw any pieces like that, but I
wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the same thing was true about
cheap, white gold remounts.
Is it an older piece? Some older white metal pieces are made with an
alloy that acts like that and I have been told that it is actually
alloyed with iridium and/or ruthenium instead of nickel. It
generally has a slightly more brown color. Not only does is melt at a
lower temp, but it sort of bubbles like it’s boiling. Getting a color
match with solder is all but impossible too. There were also pieces
made a while back that were made entirely of iridium. Really tough to
work on that stuff too.
Sorry I don’t have any good advice other than to do as you did and
use ultra-greasy flow solder. But at least I can verify that you’re
not crazy! And that you are not suffering from what we call here “The
Reverse Midas Touch”, which is what you have when all of the gold
you touch turns to S***.
Dave Phelps