Hi Peter,
I have been looking for some real metallurgical on
working with Palladium and none of the traditional books (Brepohl,
Untracht, Bovin) list its working properties or practices.
Should I just treat it like I would platinum? Does it work the same?
Will I need welding goggles like with platinum? Anything else I
should be aware of?
Nanz Aalund
Hello Nanz
I just called UNITED for info,and they were very helpful for
Palladium, so were hoover and strong. it is nothing like platinum for
starters, it is an oxygeen hogger to oxidationthe better technical
papers on pall. is by the praktikum goldschmieden palladium,
practical goldsmith palladium sereis #6 by ruhle - diebener-verlag i
think you can buy them at Otto and Frei company, the other place for
info on Palladium is the PD palladium alliance international
luxurypalladium.com they are there just help promote the material to
goldsmiths and Public. they have a few technical papers/research on
the stuff and also connections suppliers /casters contractors.I been
working with Palladium for a little while now and it is deffinatly
not anything like Platinum.
good luck
Hratch Babikian
Hi
I have been accumulating palladium working data for a couple years
now. I can answer most questions on 950palladium.
SAFETY CLUE-Yes Yes Yes use Pt type welding goggles! The temperature
you solder at is about 1200 to 1300 c.
So use solders made for 950 palladium, not the “platinum repair”
solders which typically contain far too much gold. Get plumb
palladium if you can, in any case for best color insist on a
palladium content not less that 85%. Ask your supplier.
Several companies including my employer have these solders. We are
well beyond the point where we used white gold or platinum solders on
the palladium blends. Bad soldering is how we wind up trying to
rhodium plate it, which should be and remain unnecessary.
No its not just like platinum, it does not require as much effort, I
suspect because platinum is so much more dense.
Be aware that palladium oxidizes, but generally very little. It
reminds me of Pt/Co rings when sized. A reducing flame will usually
remove the oxides that do occur.
I run a blog (the original 950 palladium blog pre dating all the
others) that is all about helping folks understand palladium from any
supplier. Anyone is welcome to comment with their experiences.
If I may submit for your perusal- palladium-experience.blogspot.com
I hope this helps, I can be reached at PMWest for more detail.
Thanks
Daniel Ballard
Check out Ganoksin’s huge section on Palladium fabrication: