My client is asking for a tiger eye bolo tie and she wants it prong set in gold. I gave her the estimate for 14k and she turned pale. I haven’t made prongs with gold filled wire and I’m concerned about how to finish the ends. I thought about making looped wire prongs, but that is a lot of soldering. Please, any suggestions?
Following is a link to a pendant that I made with a looped sterling silver wire bezel with only one solder joint that you can see. You wouldn’t have to file through the gold to the base metal. I have never worked with gold filled wire and have no idea how well it would take to this design. Good luck…Rob
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Can you show us your design? That would be helpful.
Without seeing your design though, if it has a fair amount of soldering this probably isn’t a good idea. It’s hard to solder something without doing any abrasive clean up, (files, sandpaper, abrasive wheels, polishing, etc.). You’ll probably sand, file or polish through the gold layer.
Then like you said, the edge of the sheet and ends of the wire won’t have gold.
If you are going to solder it, 8 kt easy gold solder is the best way to solder gold fill. It will be best to give your metal a boric acid dip, prip’s flux, cupronil, etc before soldering. Also do your best to not overheat the metal and heat just enough to melt the solder.
If you do make it, you can theoretically get it gold plated after you’re done, but it’s hard to find folks who do gold plating.
Maybe others have gold fill soldering tips as well.
Sorry, that I don’t have great news for you!
Jeff
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Here’s a technical video that Rio Grande put out on working with gold fill. The only difference between what they say and what I was taught is they recommend 14 kt easy solder instead of 8 kt. repair solder.
Hope this is helpful!
Jeff
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Thanks for all your help and advice. The Rio video makes me wasn’t to stick with 14k. I’m exploring making the prongs out of half round wire, as it is a bit less and does work nicely for prongs.
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Here is an example of one of my prong set bolo ties. I need to take photos of the backs to show how I designed my slide!
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Hi,
just the prongs would be gold, right?
consider pricing it in 10k yellow?…i enjoyed working with it…
julie
Hi Julie! Yes thanks, I did think about 10k gold…but Rio doesn’t carry it, nor any other vendor I’ve worked with. Where did you find it?
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Hi,
I am seeing it available on Stuller, Hoover and Strong,
julie
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Thanks!
I checked today on Rio Grande’s website.
2" of 10 kt y, 18 ga rd wire is about $22.
2" of 14 kt y, 18 ga rd wire is about $34.
2" is probably more than what you need for the prongs on a silver base, but I was nervous that 1" wasn’t enough.
Assuming that you’re going to use 14 kt. GF bolo tips, I’d make the prongs with 14 kt for a better color match, but it’s up to you.
Hope that helps you a little bit!
Also Rio Grande definitely has 10 kt y wire.
Jeff
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Do you have some 10k scrap and a rolling mill? I melt a tiny amount of gold on a charcoal block and then run it through a rolling mill.
Sonja. What a useful tip, Thanks so much. I’ve decided to make the prongs in 14K…but I want to try this tip with some scrap that I have. Wish me luck!
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Jeff … you convinced me. It wasn’t hard. Since I use Argentium, I plan to make the tips in Argentium and use Keum Boo.
Now just waiting for the tiger eye stone to arrive.
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Sometimes the simplest solutions are right in front of us. 
The “cost of gold” pain is real.
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