Making a White Gold Ring

I have the opportunity of making a white gold wedding ring for a man getting
married in 6 weeks. He wants a brushed finish to the ring. Since I have not
used white gold before (I work almost exclusively with silver) I feel a bit
apprehensive. Comments and advice would be very much appreciated.

Will I need to get the ring plated at the end of the process?

Any suggestions where this can be done in the UK?

What metal finish do you suggest?

I guess that I would brush the ring after plating not before?

Warnings of pitfalls would be very much appreciated

Regards
Kendall

On Wed, 07 Jun 2006 07:42:33 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry "Kendall Davies"
wrote:

I have the opportunity of making a white gold wedding ring for a man getting
married in 6 weeks. He wants a brushed finish to the ring. Since I havenot
used white gold before (I work almost exclusively with silver) I feel abit
apprehensive. Comments and advice would be very much appreciated.

White gold is much stiffer than silver, and in soldering, doesn't transmit heat
the way silver does. So you may wish to try a practice solder joint on abit of
scrap before doing the real thing. But in general, with a bit more force in
bending and forming, and otherwise following the general rules that lead to good
work in any metal, you'll do fine. If you're carving a wax and having itcast,
then the process is very similar to silver.


Will I need to get the ring plated at the end of the process?

That depends on your preferences, and on the specific white gold alloy. There
is quite a range of color, with some alloys having a distinct yellowish or
brownish tinge to them. These, if you want a very white looking metal, will
need rhodium electroplating. Or perhaps you like the warmer/darker tone,in
which case, leave the metal as is. There are some white gold alloys, though,
especially those higher in nickel content (possibly not available in the EU?)
which are quite white already, and don't need rhodium. They tend to be much
harder and stiffer, more difficult to work. But certainly not impossible.


Any suggestions where this can be done in the UK?

What metal finish do you suggest?

Which ever you (the designer), or the client, wish for the design.


I guess that I would brush the ring after plating not before?

No. rhodium plating is the very last step. After plating, you clean anddry it
thoroughly (or the plater will have already done that) and all that's left is to
box up the ring and deliver it. The finish before plating is the absolute final
finish you desire. Nothing is done after plating, or you'd take the plated
layer right off again.
..
Peter

Kendall Davies wrote:
I have the opportunity of making a white gold wedding ring for a man getting
married in 6 weeks. He wants a brushed finish to the ring. Since I havenot
used white gold before (I work almost exclusively with silver) I feel abit
apprehensive. Comments and advice would be very much appreciated.

Well, first of all, "white gold" is a contradiction in terms. There is no such
thing as white gold.


Will I need to get the ring plated at the end of the process?

Because "white gold" is not really white, finished objects are usually Rhodium
plated, to make them look like Platinum.


Any suggestions where this can be done in the UK?

No idea.


What metal finish do you suggest?

If your client wants a brushed finish, I suggest using a 3M Non-Woven Hand pad.
http://tinyurl.com/ern3r

Item number: 03356540 or 03356565 Both in the 3M column on the right side of
the screen.

Both create a beautiful brushed finish. I have used both of these products for
many years.


I guess that I would brush the ring after plating not before?

No, you apply the brush finish first and plate last. Plating is so thin,it
does not fill the scratches of the brushed finish. Plating is always thelast
step in any process.


Warnings of pitfalls would be very much appreciated

Never ever quench nickel white gold if you must use it. Let it air cool.

--
Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

On Wed, 07 Jun 2006 18:14:53 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry Abrasha
wrote:

Warnings of pitfalls would be very much appreciated

Never ever quench nickel white gold if you must use it. Let it air cool.

I'm afraid that for once, I'll have to disagree, somewhat, with this. perhaps
one of the few times I can ever remember disagreeing with Abrasha on a matter of
jewelry making technique...

However, the statement is not false, just, in my view, incomplete.

Nickle white golds, especially those alloys with higher nickel content, which
makes them whiter and harder, have little strength when hot, a property known
to blacksmiths or those used to forging hot metals, as being "hot short".It
means that the metal, when quenched in water from too hot a temp (Like the
annealing temperatures usually used), cannot properly withstand the thermal
shock of quenching, and tends to form cracks, which then makes the metal pretty
much useless.

However, slow cooling of many (It's complex. Not all nickel white gold alloys
do this) of these alloys will allow them to significantly harden again due to
what's called precipitation hardening, or age hardening. That process can be
used intentionally via a heat treatment in an oven generally at around 750
degrees F or so (don't quote that. Might be off. if interested, I'll look up
more solid data, or you can find a good chart in the back of Alan Revere's
"Professional goldsmithing" book) That can often reach a hardness of almost
the same as full work hardening.

Simple air cooling after annealing won't make it this hard, of course, asthe
time is much less. But I've experienced plenty of times where the 18K nickel
white golds become so hard from just air cooling, (or even more from not
annealing the original castings which air cooled in the casting flask) that they
became quite a nightmare for our diamond setters. For these alloys, at least,
some sort of quenching is needed.

But just not in water.

The traditional solution to the problem is to quench in alcohol. I usually just
use my cup of boric acid and alcohol mix, which is already on my bench asa fire
scale preventative when annealing or soldering. The boric acid in the alcohol
has no effect on it's ability to quench a piece of metal. Because the vapor
pressure and boiling point of alcohol is so much lower than water, it chills the
metal more slowly and gently (In both a water quench and an alcohol quench, it's
not the liquid doing the chilling but the heat transferred by the thin layer of
water or alcohol vapor that forms right next to the metal's surface untilthe
metal is cool enough for the liquid to break through. With alcohol, the metal
has to be considerably cooler before this happens, and the metal is cooled more
slowly on the way to reaching this point, so less thermal shock, and no
cracking. Yet the metal is still cooled through the temperature range where age
hardening occurs rapidly enough that little of this has a chance to happen.

When quenching in alcohol, be sure the metal has lost it's glow before
quenching, and then quicklly immerse it completely below the surface of the
liquid. That, as well as being sure your torch is nowhere near the cup,
prevents ignition of the alcohol. Be sure the cup is on a stable surface, and
that you have a lid handy just in case somehow the liquid does ignite. In that
case, simply pop on the lid, and it's out.

The other method of chilling white golds quickly enough to avoid hardening, that
I've found reasonably useful is if you happen to have cojmpressed air available
in your shop, and handy near to where you're annealing. if you simply hit the
metal, even while still glowing slightly, with a jet of dry compressed air, the
effect is about the same as hitting cold metal with a torch, except in reverse.
It cools it quite quickly enough to avoid hardening. But since one is often
still holding a torch in one hand, the ring in tweezers in the other, andnow
needs to control the air gun too, well, I don't have that many hands. So the
alcohol is usually easier.

cheers

Peter Rowe

One parameter wasn't mentioned: the thickness of the metal.
Maybe the men experts here are going to laugh but I simply don't have
enough force to bend, say 8 mm x 0.8 mm (or thicker) white gold stripe
into a ring. Well, I guess I can do it but it doesn't worth the effort.
In such cases, I make the ring from silver (while enjoying the work)
and then cast it in white gold. Make sure you calculate the contraction
in advance. 6 weeks is plenty of time for the whole process.
Sarit.
http://sarit-jewelry.com


Kendall Davies wrote:
I have the opportunity of making a white gold wedding ring for a man getting
married in 6 weeks. He wants a brushed finish to the ring. Since I havenot
used white gold before (I work almost exclusively with silver) I feel abit
apprehensive. Comments and advice would be very much appreciated.

Will I need to get the ring plated at the end of the process?

Any suggestions where this can be done in the UK?

What metal finish do you suggest?

I guess that I would brush the ring after plating not before?

Warnings of pitfalls would be very much appreciated

Regards
Kendall

Hello Sarit,
What ever works for you is good.
RFL
"Sarit Wolfus" wrote in message
...
One parameter wasn't mentioned: the thickness of the metal.
Maybe the men experts here are going to laugh but I simply don't have
enough force to bend, say 8 mm x 0.8 mm (or thicker) white gold stripe
into a ring. Well, I guess I can do it but it doesn't worth the effort.
In such cases, I make the ring from silver (while enjoying the work)
and then cast it in white gold. Make sure you calculate the contraction
in advance. 6 weeks is plenty of time for the whole process.
Sarit.
http://sarit-jewelry.com


Kendall Davies wrote:
I have the opportunity of making a white gold wedding ring for a man
getting
married in 6 weeks. He wants a brushed finish to the ring. Since I have
not
used white gold before (I work almost exclusively with silver) I feel a
bit
apprehensive. Comments and advice would be very much appreciated.

Will I need to get the ring plated at the end of the process?

Any suggestions where this can be done in the UK?

What metal finish do you suggest?

I guess that I would brush the ring after plating not before?

Warnings of pitfalls would be very much appreciated

Regards
Kendall

Sarit Wolfus wrote:
One parameter wasn't mentioned: the thickness of the metal.
Maybe the men experts here are going to laugh but I simply don't have
enough force to bend, say 8 mm x 0.8 mm (or thicker) white gold stripe
into a ring. Well, I guess I can do it but it doesn't worth the effort.
In such cases, I make the ring from silver (while enjoying the work)
and then cast it in white gold. Make sure you calculate the contraction
in advance. 6 weeks is plenty of time for the whole process.
Sarit.
http://sarit-jewelry.com


Kendall Davies wrote:

I have the opportunity of making a white gold wedding ring for a man getting
married in 6 weeks. He wants a brushed finish to the ring. Since I havenot
used white gold before (I work almost exclusively with silver) I feel abit
apprehensive. Comments and advice would be very much appreciated.

Will I need to get the ring plated at the end of the process?

Any suggestions where this can be done in the UK?

What metal finish do you suggest?

I guess that I would brush the ring after plating not before?

Warnings of pitfalls would be very much appreciated

Regards
Kendall



You say you dont have enough force to bend the metal sample you describe?
you cant be much of a metal smith then,
Ill point you in the right direction.
youll need your ring taper steel. a hide mallett and a piece of 2 by 1
in wood.

clamp your steel in your bench vice virtically by its parrallel part do
it up tight.
place the white gold over the steel and use the hide hammer to start
the curve at one end.
support the gold by holding the wood on top of it so your hand doesnt
get the shock when you hit the metal.
progress the gold over the steel as it starts to become round.
Start the bending at a part of the steel where its a smaller dia than
you finally want.
Get the hang of the technique with any other metal first and progress
up the thickness till you can handle up to 1/8in thick.
Its all in the technique.
Now do let us know how you get on.
Its a 5 minuite job for a proper metal worker. with only hand tools.
you need to be shown how to do this.

Dear Ted, dear Peter,
Thank you for your elaborated replies. I, of course, know how to bend
and make rings and have the required tooling + a ring bender. I also
knew that some men here won't understand what I was talking about.
Still, I wanted Kendall to know that working with white gold is nothing
like working with silver. For me (personally), white gold is not a very
pleasant material to work with, to say the least. The feeling is of a
"dead material", and | guess many of you know exactly what I mean.
For me, making the ring in silver and then cast it in white gold is a
good bypass that saves me a lot of time and effort and leaves me with
the joy of creation and work.
Whatever title you wish to give me, Ted, I'm fine with the way I choose
and remember, there is always more than one way to go from point to
point.
All the best,
Sarit.
http://sarit-jewelry.com

On Fri, 09 Jun 2006 07:52:18 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry "Sarit Wolfus"
wrote:

Dear Ted, dear Peter,
Thank you for your elaborated replies. I, of course, know how to bend
and make rings and have the required tooling + a ring bender. I also
knew that some men here won't understand what I was talking about.
Still, I wanted Kendall to know that working with white gold is nothing
like working with silver. For me (personally), white gold is not a very
pleasant material to work with, to say the least. The feeling is of a
"dead material", and | guess many of you know exactly what I mean.
For me, making the ring in silver and then cast it in white gold is a
good bypass that saves me a lot of time and effort and leaves me with
the joy of creation and work.
Whatever title you wish to give me, Ted, I'm fine with the way I choose
and remember, there is always more than one way to go from point to
point.
All the best,
Sarit.
http://sarit-jewelry.com


Sarit,

I DO understand exactly how you feel about white gold. I do a lot of work with
18K white gold, but because it's my job to do so, and clients have placedorders
for things in white gold, not because it's my preference. Silver, yellow
golds, or platinum would all be my preferred choices for metal. Pretty much
never white golds, at least not the nickel white golds I'm usually using.
Palladium white golds are actually not that bad to work with. Softer andmore
civilized. But I can't say I'm enthoused with their kind of drab color. We
get, especially with today's high prices for platinum, plenty of orders for
white gold. Personally, if I had my way, the junk would be illegal. Not
because of nickel, mind you, just because it's crappy metal to work with,and
jewelers are often underpaid enough, and shouldn't then be further tortured
with having to spend time and energy with such junky metal. Oh, wait! In the
EU it pretty much IS illegal... Wrong reasons (for me), but hey, I'll take it.
(grin) Now all we need is for the rest of the world to catch up!
OK, back to reality, and back to having to work too hard to make white gold
jewelry. Even casting the stuff isn't always the answer. I find more problems
with porosity in white gold castings than with any other metal... Ah well.
such is life, I guess...

cheers

Peter