Dear Members,
I had a bit of a rough week last week. I had 3 hand carved wax models
cast in 14k Palladium White Gold. The castings came out very nice…
it was my lack of understanding when annealing the alloy that caused
the disaster.
If a ring size is a little off due to shrinkage, I sometimes utilize
a ring stretcher to make a band larger if the style of band permits.
Well, I annealed the 14k Palladium rings the way I thought was
right; which was by heating with a torch to a red glow and then
quenching when all signs of glowing had disappeared.
The ring seemed nearly as brittle as glass because it didn’t stretch
one bit before cracking. And when I examined the crack closer
(through my tears) [just kidding] I saw that it wasn’t just one
crack, but many stress cracks that surrounded the large crack. This
tells me that it was indeed in a very brittle state after
’annealing’. I also cracked another casting on the ring mandrel with
a rawhide hammer.
So what did I do wrong? Is the 14k Palladium white similar to 18k
rose where you cannot allow it to cool through the 700deg F range or
it will result in a very brittle state (somewhat like purple gold of
gold/aluminum) ? I’m perplexed and have to complete this set so I
need help from anyone who has worked with the alloy.
Also, if you’re reading this and would like to respond, it would be
nice to copy and paste the following alloys into your response and
state what what you believe to be the proper annealing method.
10k White
10k Yellow
14k Yellow
14k White (Nickel)
14k White (Palladium)
14k Rose
14k Green
18k Yellow
18k White (Nickel)
18k White (Palladium)
22k Yellow
You certainly don’t need to respond to all that. I just thought that
it would be a nice reference of collective opinions on these most
common alloys. I do especially need help with the 14k Palladium
White Gold though.
Thanks so much!
Andy G.