[Jewelry making - Article 00083] - Re: [Orchid] Keum-boo hot plate

[R . E . Rourke]

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    cast iron... hmm, I personally avoid iron, in all forms, anywhere
    near fine silver and even low karat golds ( 14-18). I don't use
    anything but stainless, tungsten, titanium, tantalum and copper
    studio tools and am ultra careful when something is ferrous but its
    use is unavoidable to contain any dust or particles, etc. generated
    if the task involves abrasion of any kind.. Iron is an insidious
    contaminant particularly when working silvers. Unless the iron
    itself is used as a part of the design or as an alternative, and
    intentionally used metal I try to avoid anything containing it. One
    time I alloyed a quantity of gold- I used the same crucible I always
    used for 22karat golds, the same charcoal and ammonium sulphate
    refining powder I blend, but the gold came out so incredibly tough
    that it took more than 20 minutes to anneal to a half-hard state,
    never acheiving dead soft temper, and was almost resistant to
    rolling. I wanted to find out what happened since I keep an
    unbelievably clean and over-the-top organized studio. and am truly
    concious of ferrous metals entering the space- I had taught a class
    a few weeks before and all the gold sweeps and filings were in the
    batch I was processing. I used a magnet over the waste as always,
    and it extracted a bit of a saw blade. All I could presume was that
    the magnet missed some teeth off of the blade(s) that ruined the
    whole pour. I remelted it and made grain, which went directly into
    aqua regia. After a wait all the impurities dissolved out of the
    gold, and I had to start again..I learned my lesson. and lost most of
    the day's work time. A friend and colleague that recently passed
    away, DX Ross, shared the same philosophy about iron contaminants in
    the studio -with equal vigilance so I knew I was neither alone nor
    over reacting.! 

    I would, at least, put a barrier between the cast iron and your work,
    even though you aren't soldering on it, why risk contamination? it
    can be as simple as a sheet of parchment or transfer (graphite) paper
    taped down so it doesn't shift when you are burnishing.. otherwise I
    would look for a glass topped hot plate at a garage sale, or thrift
    store if you must use an electric hotplate. I have a sheet of
    stainless steel, about a quarter of an inch thick, and keep it on a
    tripod over an alcohol lamp to heat the surface, the grate on the
    tripod acts as a diffuser for the heat..It works well, is
    multi-purpose (for truing bezels, straightening or flattening soft
    metals, etc.) and saves power. RER 
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