Annealing 14/20 rose gold

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hi

Is it possible to anneal 14/20 rose gold?
Any direction would be greatly appreciated!

Dars

2

Bring the temperature up to red hot and quench it as quickly as you
can. have fun. tom arnold

3

Dar- Rose gold must be quenched when hot whether it’s from casting,
soldering, or annealing. If it’s allowed to air cool it’ll turn into
brittle unusable metal that will need to be re-refined.

Have fun and make lots of jewelry.

Jo Haemer
timothywgreen.com

4 
Rose gold must be quenched when hot whether it's from casting,
soldering, or annealing. If it's allowed to air cool it'll turn
into brittle unusable metal that will need to be re-refined.

Only 18k (and 12K) red will do this it is very composition specific
behavior. It is worst in the gold copper binary alloy so most
manufacturers add around 5% silver to the alloy to reduce the
likelihood of this brittle ordering behavior. Also it is a
reversible change as long as it has not cracked it can be fixed by
reheating to above 1000F for a few minutes and quenching which will
return it to normal working characteristics.

James Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

5

James B - My error. Thanks for the real info. and tip on saving an
air cooled piece.

I’ve only ever used 18kt. The first time we cast a ring in 18kt rose
it came out looking great. When we put it on a mandrel and hit it
with a hammer to bump it up half a size it just shattered. We re
melted and quenched and it was still bad. So there was no saving it.
Pretty effective and harsh lesson.

Since then I’ve religiously quenched and haven’t had the opportunity
to try to save an air cooled piece. I sure hope I never have to do
that.

Shudder.

Jo Haemer
timothywgreen.com

6

I had some trouble with 18k rose gold that was just gold & copper
alloy.

The fist casting I used got fissures after working it & I brought it
back to the castor, who also said not to air dry as the 2 metals want
to separate as they cool. Their recommendation was to anneal to the
point of glow, then quench immediately. And to anneal often. That
seamed to work on the next casting, I got though the piece OK, but I
haven’t worked with rose gold since. Good luck.