Hello to all, I have a problem with 18ct Red Gold.
I’ve recently been using small amounts of thin (0.3mm) gold sheet to
fuse onto silver as a decorative process (I simply place a pallion of
gold on the silver and heat with a naked flame until the silver
surface melts and fuses the gold). With a little experimentation I
found, as I expected, that none of the alloys of 9ct gold were
appropriate. In every case one of the constituent metals in the alloy
leached and ate into the silver surface during the fusing. I moved
onto 18ct alloys and found success, 18ct yellow and white gold fused
perfectly with no noticeable leaching. However, the red gold alloy
behaved almost identically to the 9ct alloys.
With respect to the above I should be very grateful for your ideas
on:
i) What is causing the leaching/eating of the silver?
ii) Are there any alloys of red gold that will not exhibit these
properties?
Many thanks,
Dan Seddon.