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Milomade
03-12-2012, 07:21 PM
Ive never worked with gold so looking for advice here. My neighbour asked if I could resize a ring for him as I'm making a ring for his wife and he could pay for both at the same time. Stupidity and naivity just made me say yes as I just presumed it would be silver - Doh! So it's gold and I didn't realised this after he'd left and I opened the envelope! It was a rushed conversation as my wee boy had just woken from his nap, so I just had time to check his ring size for the size he wants the ring stretched to, before I had to usher him out. I could easily pop round tonight and say its not a job for me, but just thought I'd ask on here and see if its something I could do.

Would I treat this just as I would silver? It only needs to be increased in size a little bit and if this was silver I would just anneal and stretch it on a mandrel, then into pickle and then polish.

Does gold get firestain? Can I bung it in the pickle?

Any advice welcome as if I'm barking up the wrong tree I'll take it back to him and tell him it's not a job for me.

Dennis
03-12-2012, 08:49 PM
Hi Evie,

The short answer is that you can treat it just like silver. However it would be wise to check the size again before proceeding: 'Measure twice, re-size once'. If it's a neighbour, I would have him standing by to confirm when you have done enough.

In the unlikely event that it then shows cracks at the solder joint you would have to cut out the damage and insert a small piece of new gold. For this reason it is worth knowing the carat and colour of the gold in advance. For example: 18, or 9ct, yellow or red. I cant believe it would happen for only half a size, but if you warn him that will be in your favour.

If you have access to a ring stretcher, and it's only half a size, the whole thing would take just minutes. This would leave no visible damage, except some shiny marks on the inside.

Oh and you won't see any firestain.
Regards, Dennis.

Milomade
03-12-2012, 09:06 PM
Thanks for the advice. I don't have a ring stretcher unfortunately. The rings I normally make are all 'open' and so I didn't see the need in investing in one.

How do you find out the colour/carat?

I'm hoping there won't be any cracking. I'm going to go really slow and gentle. As he's only next door, I'm going to pop over and measure and check progress until its the right size before polishing and finishing.

Thanks.

Dennis
03-12-2012, 10:45 PM
If you look at the hallmark, a crown shows it's gold, 750 is 18ct and 375 is 9ct. If it is plain yellow like brass it's yellow gold, if it has a reddish cast it is red gold.

If there is no UK hallmark, you're in unknown territory and personally I would politely decline explaining why. Dennis.