Coating sterling silver with gold

Jewelry Discussion
1

Has anyone ever tried to dip a flat thin two inch piece of
sterling into melted gold? I know this is not the conventional way
to make vermeil or plating, but I am wondering what would happen if
the gold was melted and the silver was room temperature. Would the
gold adhere to the silver?

2

There may be adhesion problems unles you work with pure silver and
pure gold. The Romans regularly coated steel bridle bits by dipping
them into copper.

best
Charles

Charles Lewton-Brain/Brain Press
President, Canadian Crafts Federation
Box 1624, Ste M, Calgary, Alberta, T2P 2L7, Canada

Tel: 403-263-3955
Fax: 403-283-9053
@Charles_Lewton-Brai1

3

Sounds too simple to work I don’t see where the adhesion or
cohesion would take place. like enrobing a plastic piece in chocolate
it would encase it but the plastic would move about in the center and
cause the skin of chocolate to break…

America’s Only cameo Artist
www.cameoartist.com

4 
        Has anyone ever tried to dip a flat thin two inch piece of
sterling into melted gold?  I know this is not the conventional way
to make vermeil or plating, but I am wondering what would happen if
the gold was melted and the silver was room temperature. Would the
gold adhere to the silver?

I really don’t like to read peoples ideas when they haven’t actually
tried some idea. I this case, I can’t resist. I haven’t tried it. I
won’t be trying it either as you will see.

My experience suggests in the first place, to attempt this would
require several ounces of gold to have the depth required to dip the
silver. Secondly, the silver would not be at room temperature for
any more than the very shortest fraction of a second. There would be
no adherence until the silver attained a heat extremely close to the
temperature of the gold, and as I think of it, I am thinking of a
temperature a little above the melting point of the gold. Another
problem is that as the silver is getting hotter, The gold will be
chilling from the immersion of a cold sheet of silver. Thus, we have
no real control of the temperatures of the two metals. Lastly and
most importantly, silver and gold form a eutectic where they touch.
This eutectic has a lower melting point than either of the two
elements alone. Thus, you would have a sheet dissolving directly
into your very expensive melt.

5

I don’t remember how this thread began–I don’t think the original
poster said anything about why s/he would want to do such a
thing–but, after reading Bruce’s response, I actually looked at the
title, thought about the simple (and truly inexpensive) bonding
process that happens in Keum Boo, and wondered if the original poster
was aware of this option. I’m sure there’s plenty in the archives
(and maybe in the Ganoksin library) on Keum Boo.

Lisa Orlando
Aphrodite’s Ornaments
(soon to be south of Mendocino for at least two months!)