Virginia,
I don’t have experience working with palladium, only palladium
alloyed with gold, but even palladium white gold will not work
harden like nickel white gold.
However, here is a little trick that will help you work harden bands
that you make. It requires the use of a ring stretcher that has
dies to shrink bands. Make your band a few sizes too large then
scrunch them down to the proper finger size. I usually make them
at least 3 sizes too large, more if the ring isn’t so big that it
won’t fit in the die. Of course it takes some calculating to make
sure you don’t have too much metal and it works best when using
domed stock as opposed to flat. As the band reduces in size it
thickens and if you reduce it enough it will widen a bit too, but
not as much as it will thicken. If the ring ends up too thick or
too wide you just file or grind until the dimensions are as needed.
It does take some experimentation in order to be efficient with
your metal but it produces some really nice bands that have that
beautiful bell-like ringing that you get with a work hardened
piece.
Larry
