Alloying rose gold

Jewelry Discussion
1

This is the first time I’ve tried to make a 14k rose gold alloy. I
used these proportions:

58.5% gold, 32.5% copper, 9% silver

It turned out workable but not very pink, more like a pale yellow
gold. I used copper electric wire for the copper: would that have
some other stuff mixed in with it that would affect the colour? What
forms of copper work best? How can I tell how pure the copper is?

Any suggestions for other recipes that would turn out more red/pink
and workable to draw into wire?

Irene Blueth

2 
This is the first time I've tried to make a 14k rose gold alloy. I
used these proportions: 58.5% gold, 32.5% copper, 9% silver

Electrical wire is a very pure form of copper. You have too much
silver in your alloy, I would use no more than 4%-5% max

James Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

3

Try using 2% of silver only 9% is too much. Make sure your gold and
silver are 99.999%. Copper wires are fine. Good luck!

4

My experience with mixing rose gold is limited to casting alloys. The
traditional formulas tend to result in oxidized and pitted castings.
I would expect that making ingots for sheet and wire would have the
same problems. I use United Precious Metals alloy number 540 for red
gold. It is a premixed master alloy that works great every time. It
has some de-oxidizers in it. Yes, it costs a little more than mixing
your own copper and silver, but with the main cost being gold at
$1665 an ounce I find it a far better value to have an alloy that
works rather than mess around with DYI formulas.

Stephen Walker