[Source] Pure copper to alloy 18K Y Gold

I am looking for tips on were to find copper pure enough to use in
alloying gold for jewelry fabrication projects. What have others
had success with?

Thanks - G Baldwin
Gbaldwin1@socal.rr.com

For alloying gold for your fabrication projects, why not just use an
alloy made for the purpose which you can get from Rio Grande,
Stuller, Hoover and Strong or most other supply houses? If you want
to use pure copper Rio’s gems and findings catalog has it. Although
I haven’t done it that often, I have used small bits of copper sheet
from the local hardwre store.

Jerry in Kodiak

    I am looking for tips on were to find copper pure enough to
use in alloying gold for  jewelry fabrication projects.  What have
others had success with? 

Try electrical wire, especially the stuff used for telecom (CAT 3 &
CAT 5). It’s all 100% pure copper, no alloys allowed. You can
generally pick up all you will ever need from the floor at any
construction site.

Ron Charlotte – Gainesville, FL
@Ron_Charlotte1 OR afn03234@afn.org

Hi all , when I was taught to alloy gold , I was told to use copper
wire . Just get old electrical copper wire , remove the insulation ,
and you have the purest copper available . Sometimes there is a
layer of some sort of varnish , which can be removed by heating and
pickling , but the copper is very pure and easy to get .
Best wishes , Philip Wells , in Nelson , NZ

Hello All,

It is surely a good suggestion to use old electrical wire for
alloying, but none the less it is not the only source for getting
good quality Copper.

There are a lot of vendors who supply “electrolytical grade” copper
which is at least 99.99% pure ( and it gets its name as it is
electrolytically refined copper). Also there are other finer grades
available, the best being ( which I know of ) OFHC grade copper i-e
Oxygen Free High Conductivity Copper. As it contains least possible
impurities (as also Oxygen ) there is very little scope for
contamination of the alloyed gold. To get the best possible result
of this alloying metal it is better to melt the alloyed gold in a
controlled atmosphere.

A few vendors who come to my mind are Belmont Metals Inc., based in
Brooklyn, N.Y., and all the other jewellery manufacturing consumable
suppliers should be able to take care of your requirement, though
they could charge you a premium for small quantities ( you can only
buy so much to alloy with gold ).

Nilesh.

My experience with copper wire is not so user friendly, particularly
for making sterling. We at PMWest would love to get truly clean
copper that cheaply, but such is not the case for commercial product.
When we tested electrical wire (110v ac not some fancy audiophile
speaker cable) a lot of junk metal shows up. I suggest calling your
alloy or a local baser metal supplier to get OFHC or electrolytic
copper. Belmont is good if you need moderate quantity. Some metal
houses like ourselves will sell very fine copper for about $.50 per
Toz or less.

Daniel Ballard
PMWest
800-999-7528