Hi. I am new to this community, but I see we have some people here that seem to use gold filled frequently. I cut in gold filled sheet, and I have been struggling with what to do with my edges. I have been pen plating, but my designs have a lot of peaks and valleys that even the fine pen doesn’t reach. Also, the pen plating solutions never match exactly, so if a little gets on the edge of my face, it darkens at a different rate and becomes noticeable over a few weeks (after I send it out, so problematic). I have considered bath plating, but have been told by several people that I would need a nickel layer to prevent the exposed brass from leaching to the surface. I hope I’m saying that right. So, what is the point in using gold filled if I am just going to bath plate with a nickel barrier? It seems I might as well just bath plate a cheaper base metal, but I would prefer not to go that route as I want my pieces to last longer than your average gold plate. Does anyone else cut in gold plate? What do you do with the edges? I’m about to throw in the towel and give up on the gold filled altogether. Thanks!
Nicole- I understand your frustration. I used to work in a mass manufacturing facility that made class rings and nursing pins. Many of the pins were gold filled and die struck. We just simply gold plated them over knowing that eventually the edges would tarnish a bit. However the brass area exposed was so small and designed so that the exposed brass was only on vertical edges that it really didn’t show much at all.
I hope you get the chance to learn to work and use karat gold soon. It’s a delight.
Have fun and make lots of jewelry,
Jo Haemer
www.timothywgreen.com