I’ve mostly been using 18K gold wire in my knot tying, though I
do a lot of practice pieces with fine silver. Not too long ago
someone asked me about using platinum wire for a ring, but I’ve
never worked with that metal at all. Is it hard to draw into
wire? How soft is it when it’s been annealed?
The reason I use 18K or better in my rings is that there is
considerable work involved in tying the knots - the lower karat
wire is harder, and it’s already hard enough to do the knots as
it is. (And that’s for yellow, don’t even ask about white!
Loren S. Damewood http://www.golden-knots.com
Decorative Marlingspike Seamanship rendered in precious metal.
Specializing in five- and seven-lead Turk’s Head rings.
You can use Platinum/Iridium wire for that. Order ir dead soft.
You will be amazed at the ease of which it will bend and do
exactly what you need. Hope that helps. Jurgen J.Maerz
Pure platinum wire would work much better than a 900 Pt iridium
alloy. Since it doesn’t oxidize, you can selectively anneal
areas to reduce the effects of work hardening. You might try 18k
palladium white gold alloy- it is much easier to form than
nickle based white gold alloys.
Rick Hamilton
Richard D. Hamilton
A goldsmith on Martha’s Vineyard
Fabricated 14k, 18k, 22k, and platinum Jewelry
wax carving, modelmaking, jewelry photography,
and sailing whenever I can… http://www.rick-hamilton.com
I have used 18K palladium white gold and it is very much easier
than the nickel white. I noticed that it’s tensile strength was a
bit less, though, as I kept pulling nibbles off the end of the
wire as I was drawing it. The guy I got it from was very
mysterious about his mix - am I to understand that pure gold
mixed with pure palladium is perfectly alright, and sufficiently
malleable?
Meanwhile, I’m tempted to get some pure platinum to play with. I
make pieces to order, and already have too many personal rings
due to having “experimented” with this and that, but adding a
platinum piece to my kit wouldn’t break me.
I looked at your site, very pretty work. Since you’re a sailor,
you might like mine as well. There are others who make more
“ordinary” seaman’s knots, but I pretty much specialize in the
single-line turk’s head. I’ve got links to some other knot
jewelry sites on mine, if you’re interested.
Pure platinum is soft, and you will want to burnish the wire
with a carbide burnisher before fabricating the knots. It is
stiffer than the 24k in the image on your webpage, but easier
than the Pt alloys. Hoover and Strong’s palladium white alloys
are what I have been using- they also sell a palladium ruthinium
alloy and pure palladium as well in certain fabricated forms.
Rick Hamilton
Richard D. Hamilton
A goldsmith on Martha’s Vineyard
Fabricated 14k, 18k, 22k, and platinum Jewelry
wax carving, modelmaking, jewelry photography,
and sailing whenever I can… http://www.rick-hamilton.com
