How do you work on / repair pieces made with gold filled or
plated metals. Can you solder, polish etc. in the normal manner?
I have some old “stuff” I wish to practice with. How do you avoid
/or fix scratches? Any advice or suggestions? Are cinch mounts
any good for cameos?
Thanks again,
Bob B
Bob You can use 8k.solder to work on goldfill . Note after
cleaing polish light And gold plate and that will make it look
new
good luck jack
How do you work on / repair pieces made with gold filled or
plated metals. Can you solder, polish etc. in the normal manner?
I have some old “stuff” I wish to practice with. How do you
avoid /or fix scratches? Any advice or suggestions? Are cinch
mounts any good for cameos?
Hi Bob, I have worked with gold filled items with some success.
If you plan on doing any cutting and soldering, you must have a
perfect fit and use as little solder as possible. In most cases I
use easy solder. When you finish the item out, you have to be
very careful not to break through the surface of the gold layer.
If you have a good fit and very little solder was used, you can
usually finish with just a sanding stick and polishing wheels.
Sometimes you can remove small scratches with a burnisher. If the
item is rolled gold plate, in most cases the layer of gold is
bonded on with a soft (tin/lead) type solder; so soldering has to
be done with the same type solder. Gold plated items (provided the
item is’nt pewter) have to be replated after any soldering. You
can check very easily to determine if a gold plated item is
pewter or white metal by cutting into it with a graver (in an
inconspicious area). If the graver cuts into it like butter, you
know its pewter. As far as using cinch mounts for cameos, I have
never tried it, but most cameos have compound curves, which seems
like it would be difficult to bend a cinch mount to conform. I
make a bezel and use a wire underneath the cameo in setting. Hope
this helped. Ken