I'm looking for a good source that carries electrum metal. I have
a custom order from a client calling for 2 rings and they must be
made in this specific metal.
As the later portion of your posts lays out, electrum is virtually
any naturally occuring alloy of gold and silver. But the world
"naturally" can be taken with a grain of salt if you’re trying to buy
the stuff. Just mix up your own, to whatever color you find pleasing.
Start with fine silver, add a bit of gold, and see if you like the
color. add more if you want more yellow, etc. Or start with gold and
add silver till it’s pale enough for you. Any alloy of only gold and
silver, without copper or other metals, will be soft and very
workable. Alloy your own as desired and make your own sheet and wire.
I expect you’ll have trouble finding any metals suppliers who stock
sheet and wire in this non-standard alloy which normally cannot be
stamped with a quality mark unless it happens to meet one of the
karat quality standards or has so little gold as to be within the
standard for sterling silver. That problem for quality marking
greatly limits such alloys use for any sort of commercial production.
You might, however, find a supplier who’d be willing to make some up
for you on a special order basis. Call around to your favorite
refiners/metals suppliers such as Hoover and Strong, United Precious
Metals, or David Fell, among many. Someone out there will have a
solution for you.
By the way, you should also be aware that the name, “electrum” is
also used incorrectly, to market silver jewelry that has been gold
plated. You may want to be sure that this meaning of the word is not
what your client wants. If it is, then make the jewelry in sterling
silver, and gold plate it…
Peter