Soldering Gold filled metal

Jewelry Discussion
1

Does anyone have any suggestion on how to protect the gold layer of
gold filled sheet and wire during soldering? White out, wet sand,
water?

Any help would be great.

Thanks,
Bari

2

I know it sounds highly improbable but on occasions I have used raw
grated potato.

Sam.

3

I have a follow on question to this.

Looking through the archives on this topic it was said to never
solder gold plate and that the gold plate wire is used for wrapping.
Ok I get it. Then what do I use the gold plate sheet for if I can’t
solder it? My guess would be simple designs but darn it I want to
solder something to it or it to something.

Finally how can I tell by looking which side is the gold side on the
single side plate??

Thanks a bunch.
Lisa
LL Fowler Designs
Fort Collins, CO 80526

4

Hello,

I solder gold-filled wire a lot but I don’t do anything out of the
ordinary with it. I just flux the spot to be soldered and heat the
piece. I pickle it afterward. Is it neccesary to protect it? I
haven’t noticed any difference in the metal after I’m done. I use
14/20 gold filled because I have been told that this is the best
quality gold filled to use. Granted I am largely self taught, and
have never used gold filled sheet, but as far as I know, it is plated
metals that don’t hold up well to soldering, not gold-filled. Can
someone more experienced please chime in?

Augest Derenthal
Cry Baby Designs

5

prips flux, Cupronil, Rio StopOx II will all do the job of providing
a protective layer during soldering.

James Binnion
@James_Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

360-756-6550

6

Plating will not survive soldering but gold fill will. BTW there is
18k and 22k bi-metal (fancy term for gold fill) has a thicker gold
layer than the gold fill you are using with a better color and is on
a sterling substrate. FWIW

James Binnion
@James_Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

360-756-6550

7

Hi!

I’ve been having trouble getting yellow silver solder to flow
adequately and getting the solder to flow and properly solder a
gold- fill twist wire rope around a gold- fill bezel and back. The
piece is rather large, about 90mm X 40mm. I’m not sure whether I
should be using Superior Flux (what I use when soldering silver) or
Batterns Flux, which is what I use when soldering 14K. I usually
have no trouble with silver or gold, though the gold solder is
trickier when setting down a rope. Gold- fill seems to be another
beast entirely! Also, what would the best torch to use be? I have
both an atmospheric acetylene torch and an oxy- propane torch in the
shop. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

Thank You!

Kenton W.Stevens
http://notnek2.tripod.com

8 
Plating will not survive soldering but gold fill will. BTW there is
18k and 22k bi-metal (fancy term for gold fill) has a thicker gold
layer than the gold fill you are using with a better color and is
on a sterling substrate.

I just caught this part of the thread… and remembered an old trick
we used at one shop, used while fabricating Native American style
jewelry (rings, bracelets, watch tips, etc.) from gold filled stock.
Done right, it allowed us to do minimum polishing to the pieces, and
we got perfect results from using just the final polish with rouge.
The trick was to keep everything drowned in flux so that fire scale
was never allowed to form. It took some fussing, from having things
wiggle around

from the extra fluxing(s) to moving the puddles of molten flux around
to cover exposed areas, but it sure made buffing a breeze.

Now that I’m thinking about this -I worked there around 1977 - we
also went to great lengths to keep from sctatching, scuffing, or
marring the GF during fabrication too. Lacking nylon anvils,
mandrels, pliers, etc., there was a lot of leather and masking tape
used to cover the steel surfaces of these items.

Then the boss also made us cover up the ends of wire stock, and the
shot balls made by melting bits of scrap, with a dab of 8k solder.
Then the rouge, and off to the platers. That way, a maximum of gold
contenet was retained, and the stuff would wear longer than slap-dash
competitors’ products before the copper base started to show through.

A brief excerpt from my former life as a metalsmith /modelmaker…

Dar
http://www.sheltech.net

9

I would use gold solder.

M’lou Brubaker
Minnesota, USA

10

Hey Kenton,

When I weld gold filled I use alcohol and boric acid as the flux,
make sure its really clean and use 14kt easy or super easy solder and
it works well for me. and a #2or #3 tip depending on the chain size
with an acetylene smith little torch.

Good luck
Billy

11

i’d try cupronil flux, batterns secondly though you’ll get superior
results with cupronil and gold filled…also use 6 or 8kt plumb or 14
kt yellow solder…the yellow coloured silver solder probably wont
work due to the brass base, but remember that gf is gold over a base
metal-generally brass,so you may try to masque the cut ends of the
stock with a conductive pen (available at radio shack).try soldering
on charcoal and keep the stock well wetted with Cupronil or batterns

hope this helps

12

Hi Mlou!

That’s what I used the first time- easy 14K yellow gold solder, but
it didn’t flow worth two cents. The mtal was clean- dunked it in
acetone first, then into the pickle and rinsed it. The flux I was
using was Batterns, which is what I use when soldering solid 14K.
That’s when I tried using the yellow silver solder- which was
recommended by Rio Grande Co.- but I had the same problem. I don’t
think it was a lack of heat, as I was using both an atmospheric
acetylene torch and a oxy- propane torch with a neutral flame. I
used a #1 torch tip with the atmospheric acetylene torch as well,
seeing as how it was a large piece.

Dar mentioned using a mixture of alcohol and boric acid for the
flus, so I’ll do a test piece to see how that works later this
evening. I’ll try it with regular gold solder as well, just to see
what the difference might be.

Thankyou for the reply, and I hope those tornadoes the other day
missed you- apparently they did- but that was a pretty bad outbreak,
especially for this time of year!

Thanks again for your reply and advice! If you ever have any
problems polishing “problem stones” give me a holler- that seems to
be my “forte”! Pass the word!

Kenton

13

A while ago I was soldering together a small gold pendant, about the
size of my thumbnail, with nine pieces, as I remember. I was using
easy gold sheet solder, and no matter what I did, it just wouldn’t
flow. I finally remembered I had just bought some easy 14k paste
solder, so I cleaned everything one more time and set it up using
that. It went together like a dream, and I’ve been using paste
solder ever since. It goes where you want it and stays where you put
it.

Janet Kofoed

14

I wonder what makes the paste flow better? what kind of flux was you
using?

Billy

15

When I was soldering a piece of gold filled metal about one inch in
size at both ends to 21g wire, with 14k gold easy solder pieces, I
saw the gold layer actually peal off and then get singed, how can I
protect my gold filled metal?

Any help would be great!

Bari

16

remember paste solders already contain flux…clean joints that fit
tightly and then dip in firecoat preventative, or apply to a warmed
piece, then put asmall amount of paste on the join and solder moving
the flame and not holding it on the paste

17

Typically, paste solders have more aggressive fluxes than what is
used in batterns, cupronil, or alcohol/borax mixes…which do a
better job of cleaning the metals and promoting flow of the solder
alloy. Also, paste solders are generally formulated with the ideal
ratio of flux to solder alloy, so there is always enough flux.
Finally, because a paste solder is a single homogeneous product, it
takes the guesswork out of whether the assembly has been heated to
the correct temperature or not. Because the paste is placed on the
joint before heating, the user only has to focus on their torch
control, and they can easily see when the assembly has reached the
correct temperature.

Also, both yellow-colored silver solders (usually 45% silver with
cadmium) and gold solders should work fine on gold filled and are
suitable for use. The silver solder is less expensive and the color
will match fairly well when assembled, however, the silver solder
will tarnish slightly more quickly than the 14k gold layer of the
gold-filled. A gold solder will tarnish at the same rate as the 14k
gold layer on the gold-filled, but is more expensive (and usually
higher in temperature than the 45% silver).

Hope this helps!
Michael