[Jewelry making - Article 00261] - Re: [Orchid] Dry Gold?

[Peter W . Rowe]

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>     Someone used this term recently to describe 14K castings that
>     had a propensity to melt suddenly and catastrophically during
>     soldering. Anyone have an inkling? 

    A store I worked at many years ago carried a line of 14K gold cast
    mountings that were a pain in the rear to solder, because they'd do
    just that. The color was a tad paler than the usual, and this stuff
    would melt slightly below the normal 14K hard solders we used, so
    heads and even sizings, had to be soldered with medium or usually,
    easy solder. When this gold melted, it didn't just start to soften
    and slump a little, it suddenly puddled. We in the shop eventually
    convinced the owner to stop buying from that company. The problem
    was the gold alloy they were using. It had a little more silver than
    usual, so the color difference, but also a higher percentage of zinc
    to deoxidize the castings. Their alloy formation did indeed give
    great castings, with less porosity than sometimes seen, and it was
    nice and soft for stone setting or other cold work. But the other
    result was an alloy that must have been very close to a eutectic
    formulation for those metals, since it melted very suddenly and
    completely, rather than over a gradual temperature range going
    though the usual slushy state one might be accustomed to with
    "normal" 14K gold alloys from most manufacturers. It gave you no
    warning when it was about to melt... 

    But I've not heard the term "dry" gold used for that. Frankly, in my
    book, that alloy was "all wet"... (grin) 

Peter
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