Making my own 14K

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hello everyone,

I have just placed an order for some 24K gold and am planning on making my own 14K gold with just gold, silver and copper. I was wondering however on the exact percentages of silver and copper to make a nice rich yellow colour.

2

Best to use master alloys from Rio or other supplier.

3

Orchid is full of gold formulas. You really should search the archives.
:slight_smile:

4

All of these archives are for ‘free’! If you don’t look here you’re not looking at the right places. Just think that the readership hails from over 40 countries and 21,500 members! I know this for a fact… so mind-boggling isn’t it?

In Canada, we are celebrating Monday as a “Family Day” where we can just enjoy our families & friends!
Regards to everyone and everywhere!
Gerrysdiamondsettingessays

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Gerry, On my iPhone!

5

Why not just buy it?..Rob

6

Thank you everyone for the replies, I like the idea of making my own gold using just gold, silver and copper. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas perhaps for recipes I hadn’t seen before. I have using a ternary plot to get and idea of what colour to expect from different compositions.

7

Just buy the 14K; what you make will not be equivalent and that may affect your future work. I doubt you save any money

8

Jonah, I applaud your efforts at making your own karated gold alloy. My suggestion is for you to follow the CIE Lab color numbers used in Europe and mix the alloy mentioned there. Once you like the color of one of your mixes, I suggest you buy that blend from an alloy manufacturer. The reason being, alloy manufacturers add minor additives like grain refiners, deoxidizers, elements known to improve mold filling properties, etc to the karated material depending on whether it is a rolling formula or a casting formula. You can add these minor additives yourself but most of them are in ppm levels and any variation of them could significantly degrade the alloy performance. It is just not worth your time - leave the headaches to alloy manufacturers.
Just my 2 cents.

Shan

2 Likes
9

I can think of several reasons not to do this. But I will also tell you there have been many times I have done such adventures just say I did and I could. Have fun. Its a large part of why we do this stuff,

Don Meixner

10

Thank you for the advice and kind words. It just what i wanted to hear :slight_smile:

11

Are you referencing adding the additives of the less common elements (ie silicon)? Or making alloys in general?

12

Yes to both.
Additives like silicon, boron are notoriously difficult to maintain at proper levels in the karated gold since they are so very reactive at the temperatures at which these alloys are processed.
Making alloys, in general, is a time-honored tradition that each alloy manufacturer adheres to, since if there is any variation in the process, they are bound to hear back from their customer base!