[Jewelry making - Article 00205] - [Orchid] Rolling out 14K

[Aimee Golant]

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Hi,

    So a client and I have melted down almost an ounce of mostly 14K
    yellow and some mystery gold. We are rolling it into a chunky sheet
    that we will bend into a band ring. 

    I am used to doing this process in 18 or 22K gold, but not in 14K.
    We are constantly battling cracks, and the piece is very hard. We are
    annealing to a red, letting it cool a couple of seconds then we
    quench, pickle, sand and roll through the mill. It gets 2 passes
    through the same tightness before we clamp down even tighter,
    although only a tiny bit more tight. Sometimes we do a fusing like
    process over the cracks during the annealing process where we heat
    them up very hot to fuse a little, and then we ball peen hammer over
    the cracks. Sometimes we use a belt sander to sand below them. 

    I worry that when we go to bend this piece into a ring it will just
    crack all together. We are going to bend it on the kick press. Would
    anyone recommend working the gold while it is still hot? Does anyone
    have any more suggestions on how to do this more safely. We are
    almost to the point of bending and soldering. Any tips on this would
    be greatly appreciated. 

My Best,
Aimee
http://www.aimeegolant.com
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