[Jewelry making - Article 00741] - Re: [Orchid] Brittle prongs in casted jewelry

[Freak Style]

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    Metal doesn't get brittle after casting... the properties of cast
    metal depend to a very large degree on several variables during the
    casting procedure.  I used to work for the inhouse casting area of a
    large jewellery production company - when the jewellers complained
    to us that the metal was brittle we had to look at what we had been
    doing and make decisions on where to make changes.  Very often the
    culprit was the metal put into the cast.  It is very rare for anyone
    to put entirely "new" metal into a cast - sometimes we found that we
    didn't have enough new metal... or in some cases we just ditched all
    of our old metal (sent it for refining) and started over with new
    metal.  Also, we found that sometimes it paid to adjust the sitting
    time of the flasks before quenching. 

    18 White was a particularly difficult metal for us - it was often so
    hard that the jewellers sent it back and said they couldn't work
    with it, it was also often brittle.  In the end, we changed the
    whole alloy for the metal to find a better balance between the
    hardness of the metal and still get a good white colour. 

    If you are not doing your own casting you should report your
    problems to the caster as they may not be aware them.  Once they are
    aware of the problem hopefully they will work at fixing it for you. 
    If not, I think it would be worth switching companies. 

R.R. Jackson

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