[Jewelry making - Article 00315] - Re: [Orchid] Hard gold? here's the answer

[David L. Huffman]

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Hi Gerry and others;

>     always anneal your gold, prior to setting...especially on WHITE
>     GOLD 

    You are right, it is ideal if you can anneal white gold.
    Unfortunately, if it is a casting, very little annealing can occur.
    I've had white gold, castings and fabricated from stock, including
    Stuller's new (and despicable) X-1 alloy, that contain so much nickel
    that they are impossible to bright cut. The metal is just too stiff,
    no matter what you do. I love bright cutting in the palladium white
    gold alloys, but when you get 17% and upwards nickel content, you
    just can't push a bead. In fact, I've actually hammered a beading
    tool on the stuff and, looking with a loupe, saw that all I had
    succeeded in doing was rounding the corners off a bit and spoiling a
    beading tool. If you can't tighten a bead onto a stone, that stone is
    likely to fall out. I tell my accounts, if you really insist on using
    high nickel white gold, I will have to charge a misery factor and I
    won't guarantee stones against falling out. 

David L. Huffman
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