Gold solder for inlay

I thought I had seen this discussed, but I can’t find it. One of my
jewelry references mentions that you can make inlay by flooding the
recess with gold solder (I would use 18K). Is there a problem with
that?

J. S. Ellington

There is a technique where one will melt (flood) Gold, not solder,
into a channel in platinum. Here the platinum will be well below
it’s melting point while the gold can flow. The platinum will hold
its shape. If you are trying to use gold solder in either a
different color gold or in silver, you will get an overflow along
the edges as the solder alloys with the metal. In addition, when
gold solder is allowed to build up or puddle, it tends to develop
bubbles. It will also discolor over time. All in all, I wouldn’t
recommend this as a good process.

Don

I thought I had seen this discussed, but I can't find it. One of my
jewelry references mentions that you can make inlay by flooding the
recess with gold solder (I would use 18K). Is there a problem with
that?  

Nope. You might want to make an undercut here and there, but if you
heat the ground (underlying medal) to get the solder to flow, well,
it’s soldered!

Wayne

Hi Don, We’ve done a fair amount of “solder inlay”, mostly pins, and
haven’t had a problem with solders discoloring. Might there be
differences between solders? We usually use Cadmium-containiung
solders for this process. And, yes, one has to be prepared for
overflow, we make designs that are simple to sand back the surface so
the inlay bord ers are clean.

We often make two-tone rings using bi-metal casting, casting the
white gold first, then creating a wax around or within it and
casting the yellow gold. it seems to bond well and we’ve had zero
problems with this.

Wayne

There’s a brief description of the process of solder-inlay in Tim
McCreight’s book, Jewelry–Fundamentals of Metalsmithing (Hands Book
Press; 1997), pp. 24-25. It says to use a stamping tool to make the
impression , flux, and flood the recess with hard solder. File off
excess (etc.) I tried this with a piece of 16 gauge copper, flooding
it with silver brazing rod material. I over-flooded, so had to do a
lot of filing. The result was interesting – using a patina didn’t
work on my combination, but the effect after bright-dipping was nice.
Some day (some year…), I’ll do some more experimenting, including
the use of gold solder. It sounds like fun, but that’s the trouble
(as well as the really great thing) about metalworking – there are
so many things that sound like fun! Judy Bjorkman

    We often make two-tone rings using bi-metal casting, casting
the white gold first, then creating a wax around or within it and
casting the yellow gold.  it seems to bond well and we've had zero
problems with this. 

Wayne, are you saying what I think you’re saying? You can embed a
14K (for example) white gold piece into a wax and cast it in 14K
yellow gold and there will be no problems with the white gold where
it meets the molten yellow gold? I’ve done this in platinum and 18K
yellow, but didn’t know it could be done in two color gold where the
melting points are so close. (Dang it; I just completed a WG/YG ring
where this method would have saved me a lot of time!) Am I
misunderstanding something here?

Cindy

    We often make two-tone rings using bi-metal casting, casting
the white gold first, then creating a wax around or within it and
casting the yellow gold.  it seems to bond well and we've had zero
problems with this. 
    Wayne, are you saying what I think you're saying? You can
embed a 14K (for example) white gold piece into a wax and cast it
in 14K yellow gold and there will be no problems with the white
gold where it meets the molten yellow gold? I've done this in
platinum and 18K yellow, but didn't know it could be done in two
color gold where the melting points are so close. (Dang it; I just
completed a WG/YG ring where this method would have saved me a lot
of time!) Am I misunderstanding something here? 

Cindy, Yes, that’s what I’m saying. The already cast white gold is
never made hotter than about 1200 degrees F in the burnout cycle,
the flask temp at pour is about 950 degrees F, and ther’es no
problem. I like to place the whole crucible back in the kiln, turn
the heat off and let it cool very slowly so that there are no
sudden shrinkage problems. Actaully, the Pt /gold double casting is
much more difficult… Try it!

Wayne