[Jewelry making - Article 01451] - Re: [Orchid] Beware - Orange Peel on Palladium

[Lizzieq]

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    Thankyou very much for the reply to my post on this subject. I thank
    Neilthejeweler and Paul Finelt. 

    I have written Hoover and Strong to see if they can shed any light
    on the problem. If and when I receive a reply I will certainly post
    it here. 

    As for polarity, all is fine and correct. This is a good suggestion
    and would seem an obvious problem but we have been in the business a
    while now and the polarity is correct. Certainly, reverse polarity
    could and would cause a problem but this time that is not the reason. 

    As for grain size, etc., affecting the plating and electroclening
    process, there might be something to that. The shank was forged,
    annealed, formed and soldered to the ring top with palladium
    solders. The shank was quite flat on the sides and did show more of
    the effect than the cast top. The cast top did show the orange peel
    but perhaps to a lesser amount:; considering the detail in the top
    section of the ring it was really difficult to determine if it was
    less affected or the same as the shank. 

    Yes, different metals are different! No doubt about that regardless
    if from the same "family" of metals. Also, who knows for certain what
    other elements are in the PD alloy besides ruthenium. The makers
    state trace amounts of other elements are added to improve ductility,
    etc. Palladium seemed to fail some many years ago, in the market
    place overall and in workability. Perhaps the new alloys will solve
    such problems. 

    Regardless, if there are problems with rhodium plating the basic
    alloy, the manufacturers it would seem should alert the jewelers to
    this issue. Why plate in the first place? The customer wants the
    color of the ring to match with their white gold rhodium plated items
    and it would seem simple enough. Simple? No way. 

    I truly appreciate the replies and will let you know if I hear from
    Hoover and Strong. Thanks again. Thomas.
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