I do Viking Knit for a friend who makes it into jewelry. Recently, she had some 14k gold wire sent to me to be worked. When it was time to pull the Viking Knit through the draw plate, I annealed it in my kiln. I did not flux the 14k gold Viking Knit before annealing it.
The Viking Knit turned black. My friend has done the following: The 14 K white gold spent four hours in the pickle off and on. Taking it out rinsing on intervals, adding fresh water/pickle etc. A half dozen 10 minute spans in the magnetic finisher, emptying rinsing, adding fresh water/soap. It’s brown instead of black now….
Is there a way to return the 14k gold to a shine? Any suggestions are appreciated.
Have you tried polishing a small section just to make sure that it is gold? It should shine right up. That being the case you can try pulling it through a polishing cloth embedded with tripoli. You might also just try boiling it in a very strong pickle. Others may have a chemical solution (no pun intended) to this problem. Good luck…Rob
She’ll try the polishing cloth with Tripoli tomorrow. We’ll see how that works for her. She has been using the pickle routine and says it has lightened the color from a black/brown to a lighter brown. She’ll keep on working on it! Thanks for your suggestions, Rob!
Rob’s suggestion is a good one. If it’s 14 kt. gold that has tarnished/discolored for some unknown reason, the discoloration is just on the surface. You should be able to polish it away. Also, Rob’s suggestion of using a polishing cloth is the best way to figure out what’s going on.
Polishing chain with a buffing wheel can dangerous and have catastrophic consequences. There’s lots of info on the forum about the dangers of buffing chain with a buffing machine. Hopefully, this is just a simple problem. Fingers crossed!!