[Jewelry making - Article 00791] - [Orchid] 950Palladium jewelry (Source) and advice

[Daniel Ballard]

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Hi,

    Forgive my second post on this topic, but my last post found few if
    any of you even knew this new palladium jewelry is being sold. So in
    the interest of saving us all nasty surprises at the bench or sales
    counter- 

    QVC is selling 950palladium jewelry, and it looks a lot like
    platinum. Every bench jeweler should be aware of this stuff and look
    for the stamp "950Pall" plus whatever hallmarks are on there. Please
    note palladium melts around 1400 or even 1300 C! I hope this note
    keeps anyone reading from accidentally treating this material like
    platinum or white gold by mistake.  Professional jeweler magazine is
    planning a good article or series on this "new" metal for jewelry. I
    see some Russian manufacturers are going with 850Pd which may or may
    not be a factor here in the USA anytime soon. 

    I overlooked a question from Noel about 950Pd jewelry from y first
    post-Sorry Noel!- Yes we are working with it. We have a variety of
    formulas in testing, and we are not YET publicly disclosing exactly
    what is up in the final 5%. I say that mostly because like other
    alloys the intended purpose changes the mix. Contact me offline to
    discuss what we have available now at PMWest, despite the temptation,
    I do try not to put commercial content in these posts.
    Daniel AT preciousmetalswest.com 

    When you look at the relative costs-As I write this palladium is
    $194 per ounce on the NY market. Platinum is $881 per ounce. Then you
    must consider the specific gravity of the metals. Palladium is about
    56% the weight of platinum. If your model wax weighs just .5 dwt, and
    you are casting platinum you need about 10.5 dwt of platinum at about
    $45 per dwt. $472.50 just for casting grain. In 950palladium the
    weight needed for the same casting is 5.9 dwt at $11.39 per dwt. Your
    cost is about $63 for the casting grain. This is a seven fold
    difference in cost! 

    Platinum has undeniable appeal. So perhaps white gold is what this
    is really an alternative for.  Today 950Pd runs about two dollars
    less per dwt than 14k white gold, and much less than nickel free
    palladium white gold. Confused yet? Me too at first. 

    Of course the new material will be demonstrated at my best
    show-Kraftwerks. 

Daniel Ballard
www.pmwest.us
800-999-7528

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