Gold filled earring wires - open connector question

Jewelry Discussion
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Hi there!

I’m new to the forum and to jewellery making (started about a year ago).

I had a question about gold-filled earring wires and was hoping for some advice (thank you so much in advance!).

The design I’m looking to use (picture attached) has a larger loop design, using 20 gauge gold-filled wire.

I’m concerned that once I have hardened the wires, it stills leave a weak point at the join. I wondered if anyone else had used a design like this and whether they have encountered issues with it? I plan to sell these with brass designs as drops, so want to make these as robust as possible.

I know that there can be issues overheating gold-filled, which can irreversibly damage the wires, so was hesitant about soldering the wires closed. I work with silver and solder the same design for these ones, which I’m much more comfortable with. I’d love to use this design for brass too.

My thoughts were that I might have to switch out to solid gold wires and then solder these as the best way forward? I have yet to work with gold / gold solder, so am nervous to try (particularly without guidance given gold price)!

Any advice as to a recommended strategy is very gratefully received. Thanks again!

Gold filled earring wire pic - sep 25
Gold filled earring wire pic - sep 251820×1150 136 KB

Best wishes

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I hope that you get some replies. I have never worked in gold filled and would like to hear more. I did a quick check to see how gold filled compares to sterling silver. At Rio, 1 foot of GF 20G wire is $7.43. 1 foot of sterling silver 20G wire is $2.83. Good luck…Rob

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Yellow gold-clad solders easily enough with karat gold solder. Just a wee bit of easy or at most, medium solder is all you need for a join like that. Avoid overheating the piece.

I’ve had much less success with rose gold-clad with maybe 40% of pieces losing the rose color and turning bright silver. I’m guessing that is tin or zinc coming out of the base metal alloy?

Last I checked, Rio did not sell rose gold solder because of poor performance. Stuller does sell it. I don’t recall if they sell rose (or yellow) gold solder with cadmium, but if they do, avoid it for several good reasons.

But soldering a yellow gold-clad join like that should not be a problem.

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Guide to Working with Gold-Filled Metals & Findings - RioGrande https://share.google/EJA8dLctclE8334q5

Try this info..~~*Stv

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Good information. I read it long ago and forgot that it was there. Thanks…Rob

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Thanks hugely for the replies and advice - I will have a read through and digest!

Best wishes and wishing you all a lovely day.

Nicola

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Hi Nicola.

When working with GF wire, try and keep the join line to the inside curve of bends, for compression to prevent it from stretching open on the outer side of the bend curve.

Soldering silvers takes more heat than soldering golds, because of silver’s greater heat conductivity, so when bringing your silver soldering skills to working with golds, you need only keep the flame localised on the joint with gold metals, including GF types. Use as small a flame as practicable, like from a microtorch. Make sure the flux you use runs through the whole joint before soldering.

As others have commented, use an easy gold solder to match the karat of the gold, and solder using the same method you use for silver metals.

I would recommend you practice test solder on small GF wire pieces until you get the feel for its behaviour.

To prevent scale burn tarnishing, any of the anti-oxidation products as mentioned can be applied beforehand to the nearby metal outside of the joint being soldered. Removal method depends upon the product.

Light polish only to shine up joint. Do not use cutting compounds, like grease.

Stamp and label your work appropriately and accurately. Know your metals and be informed about the differences, so you can advise your customers properly. Do not only stamp GF as 10K or 14K without an adjacent GF or RG stamp.

Lastly, keep your different metals and lemels separate. The base metals in GF or rolled gold (RG) filings will degrade your gold alloy lemel, and cannot be remelted for your own use nor are bought by refiners.

Welcome to working with golds. Keep expanding your skillset, practice make perfect, and take pride in a job well done.

Best regards, Col.

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Thanks hugely - this is really helpful and appreciated. I have some gold solder arriving in next day or two, so will put this all to practice!

Best wishes

Nicola