14k white gold to cast or fabricate?

Jewelry Discussion
1

I need to make these two rings in 14k white gold (daughter say’s “I”
must make them!). I casted the solitare one and fabricated the 5
stone from silver just to see if I could do it. Now I have the delima
of cast or fabricate out of the real stuff. I have never worked with
white gold and I’m a little intimidated by all the super white grain
/ rhodium plating / nickel vs paladium alloy info out there. I’m
leaning toward fabricating from stock sheet and wire from Rio. I
don’t have rhodiom equipment, will I be dissapointed if I don’t plate
them?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

2

do not rhodium plate
use palladium for your alloy

in 14k the palladium should make the metal very white without the
need to plate with rhodium never use nickel in your alloys.

if your daughter is looking for the platinum look with white gold
without the price tag than just cast the jewellery in palladium. the
material is wonderful to work with

you might think about adding 5 or 10% gold or fine silver to the mix
just to give you an alloy that will have a better flow rate than the
pure palladium

This is just my opinion
Les

3

Palladium white fabricates beautifully and I never feel the need to
rhodium plate it. Make sure you use palladium white gold solder or
18k white gold solder. I doit all in hard. Do not quench let air
cool.

Have fun
Lauren

4 
..use palladium for your alloy in 14k the palladium should make the
metal very white without the need to plate with rhodium never use
nickel in your alloys... you might think about adding 5 or 10% gold
or fine silver to the mix just to give you an alloy that will have
a better flow rate than the pure palladium

This is interesting. How did you melt your palladium? Does it take a
very high temperature? Have you made these pd/ag and pd/au alloys
yourself? Did it require any special atmospheric conditions? What
sort of investment did you cast it into?

Andrew Werby