[Jewelry making - Article 00063] - Re: [Orchid] Brittle gold

[JETT Research]

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>          Short ending:  we repaired all three cracked areas -
>     including the original - with medium solder.  But the question is,
>     was it just work hardening and stress cracking, or was there an
>     alloy issue as well? 

    Dear Les, It makes me wonder if this lady had been a nurse during the
    50 years that the ring had been on her finger.  I have seen things
    that resemble what you described after a ring has been exposed to
    mercury.  When a gold alloy is exposed to mercury, the mercury tends
    to migrate deep into the metal. The normal way to repair this is to
    heat the entire ring above the vapor temperature of mercury under
    "extreme" ventialtion.  If it has been exposed and a repair had been
    attempted heating the ring until the mercury had "boiled" off then
    the surface could appear yellow once more.  The inside however could
    still be an amalgam.  Residual mercury can make the ring brittle as
    well as can age or case hardening.  The part that you described as  
    "the body metal began to collapse as well.",   would either make me
    think that 1. you were using too hot and too small of a flame (which
    I doubt), 2. The solder you were using had a higher melting
    temperature than the original band alloy, or 3. the metal contained a
    contaminant that greatly altered the liquidous temperature of the
    alloy.  Mercury tends to make an alloy mushy and under the stress
    conditions of "flushing up the ends", it might appear to collapse. 
    Interesting. 

Best Regards,
J. Tyler Teague
JETT Research


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