Working 9 carat gold

Happy New Year All,

A friend recently came across a damaged (ct gold necklace and has
asked me to use the gold to make a pendant. My question is: Can I
safely work 9ct gold (ie roll sheet and/or draw wire) or is it too
hard? Also what solder would be best to use, Hard, medium or soft,
when constructing?

regards
John Bowling

Working is very similar to 10 Kt gold, and you could use 10 Kt
solder. If you are in the good old USA, remember, that 9 Kt can not
be called gold.

FTC guidelines require at least 10 kt for us to call it gold.

john

Hi John.

9 carat gold is fine to work with I use it quite often. Being
remelted chain it will probably have a little bit more solder content
in it so it may be a slight bit more brittle as well. I would try
using medium solder as the melting point of the metal may be lower
due to the extra solder from the chain.

Good luck
Dean

Depends how large and how thin your sheet will be. Cracking seems
likely. Interested in what others will say.

I don’t even like rolling 10k.

I would try it. At their risk. No guarantees. With a back up plan.

I sometimes melt 9 carat gold, I make sure there is no solder in it.
If there are joins, I cut those bits out and give them back to the
client.

I cast an ingot in Delft clay, then forge it out to about half the
original width and thickness before rolling into sheet or drawing
into wire. Use medium or easy 9 carat solder.

Annette

Dear Jhon…
IT will totally depend on what alloy the chain metal is made of … Best is to XRF the jewelry & know the contents well in advance to know if its workable as 9k gold contains 80-92% alloy… & only 37.5% gold … even though it is workable it will be difficult…
regards,
Prakash V Pai

Sorry a small error What i meant is 80-92 % copper or ZInc… Jut missed out on that
Regards,
Prakash v Pai

Hi John,
I’m in the UK where 9ct is very common. I’ve used hard, medium, and easy solder on all types of 9ct with no ill effects. There are various grades of 9ct gold: red, white, yellow, soft and “dead” for claws and hard and springy for clasps etc. - I’ve soldered them all, with all solder grades, without problems, and none of them are brittle unless they’re work hardened without subsequently being annealed.

I always wondered if you could depletion gild 9K to the point where it really looks like 14K or 18K. I assume you can–I believe the ancient depletion gilding in S. America was often done on a very low carat alloy.

Janet in Jerusalem