It’s really important to make sure that when we post things like
this we are sure of our sources.
That’s why I asked for confirmation.
I have researched this and can find no references to cadmium being
used as a coloring agent in white-out. It’s too expensive to use
anyway and titanium oxides are far better.
Urban myths, such as those responsible for the modern whooping cough
vaccine fiasco and the online bartering for measles infected
lollipops, do us all a great disservice and we need to take a
responsible approach if we repeat them.
What is true is that “spinning silver” an alloy of silver copper and
cadmium, was in use up to the eighties and did cause serious health
issues to polishers in the trade.
White-out appears to be a safe material, even at high temperatures.
I still prefer a slurry of red iron oxide (rouge) and alcohol!
I may be a trained silversmith/jeweler, but I think like an
engineer in how I design things.
And that is the key. Goldsmith must be an engineer, an architect, a
scientist, an artist,. - all wrapped into one.
We talked about azure recently, so it is interesting to examine
parallels in science. A surface which is correctly azured is an
optical trap. Once ray of light hits it, the only exist is through a
stone. It is hard to pinpoint exactly when it was invented, but we
have examples from 17th century.
In science, problem of Black Body occupied minds for some time. Black
Body is a body with absorbs all incident light. Since perfect black
color does not exist in nature, such body was conceived as optical
trap. Ray of light enters through opening and bounce from wall to
wall until completely absorbed. The same idea as azure, but different
end goals. It also appears that technique of azure predates Black
Body concept. Could it be that scientists got their idea from
goldsmiths?
In present time, perfect black paint does exist. We should say
almost perfect. Absorption rate is over 99%. It is constructed from
carbon nanotubes, oriented on surface normals. In other words, when
light hits such surface, light enters inside of a tube and bounces
from wall to wall until it is absorbed. Kind of like a micro azure on
nano scale.
So what started as desire to improve appearance of diamonds, is
revolutionizing science today. Such covering inside telescope tubes
allows for much higher resolution, objects painted with it are almost
invisible under right conditions, and etc…
if you do not have a reliable source don't post this kind of thing.
I have a broken tennis bracelet link. I can put it together and fix
it, but doing it (frankly) the lazy/budget way means there’s a risk
of soldering the link together, which is worse than we started. I
get my yellow ochre and moisten it with a little water and paint it
on. I wait 10-15 minutes, doing something else, while it dries. I
solder the joint, and I don’t worry much about the.000001gm of
powder in my already soiled pickle pot. I collect my $200/hr for the
job and I go home. I don’t need to use the latest gizmo or somehow
look for a fix for something that isn’t broken. My can of ochre cost
me $5 at Rio Grande 40 years ago, and it still works just as well as
it ever did. Whoever inherits this shop will inherit that can, which
is still at least 1/2 full.
It’s just dirt. It works just fine. It never occurs to me that I
have fumes or solvents or cadmium or kryptonite. It’s just dirt.