Which Solder for 9ct White Gold ring

[Jimbo]

Hi, am new to this forum and looking for some help please.

I have a 9ct White gold ring to make for a client, but having a lot of trouble finding hard & easy solder in the catalogues in 9ct White. In this circumstance is it acceptable to use hard/easy solder grades in 18ct White instead. Will I see any difference in the colours when I polish the ring and before its plated.

Thanks Jim

[Patstone]

Dont know the answer to the question I am afraid, but why plate a beautiful white gold ring. My wedding ring was 18ct plated and I hated it to start with, it looked cheap and tacky, now the plating has worn off I love it.

[Dennis]

Hi Jim,

When you re-heat a solder joint the solder will only melt again at a higher temperature, so for your ring it is quite alright to use the same grade of solder for at least three separate soldering stages.

You will find that for 9ct white only medium solder is offered, because this metal has a habit of suddenly melting if overheated. I suggest you work in quite a dark room to see at once if you are concentrating too much in one place.

As Pat says, 9ct white gold is beautiful and has only a slight yellow cast, which I like. If you rhodium plate it, which is commonly seen in high street jewellers, it will look more like chrome and quite hideous. |Dennis.

[Victoria]

Hi Jim

I use 18ct easy solder paste on all my white gold rings, regardless of the carat of the ring.

Easy solder shows up more than hard solder on silver and I've found the same to be true with white gold. If you use 18ct easy solder on an 18ct white gold piece you will see a slightly paler line where the solder join is (you might need to bear that in mind depending on your design, i.e. if the join is at the top of the ring for some reason then you would be better off getting hard solder that doesn't show as much)

However in your case, as you're using 9ct white gold which is lighter than 18ct white gold (which can be quite grey) then any solder join mark is barely visible.

You don't say, but I'm assuming you're using 9ct palladium white gold in which case there's no need to rhodium plate - 9ct is a nice colour and the plating is only an added expense that wears off anyway.

Hope this helps.
Victoria x

[Patstone]

You may ask why did I choose a tacky wedding ring - I didnt, hubby chose the wedding ring at the same time as the engagement ring and wasnt going to take no for an answer. He loved the style of the rings, and so do I, but I am very glad the plating has after nearly 8 years worn off.



Dont know the answer to the question I am afraid, but why plate a beautiful white gold ring. My wedding ring was 18ct plated and I hated it to start with, it looked cheap and tacky, now the plating has worn off I love it.

[Jimbo]

Hi

Thanks you all for your responses. The ring is a solitaire and will have a number of joints hence my thoughts were with using at least two solder grades around the top of the ring - I use a similar approach when working in silver for claw mount rings so assumed the approach would be the same. The client has chosen 9ct White gold as that allows them to put more money into the stone now and maybe change the setting later.

Looking at the catalogue I could only find Nickel based 9ct white in Cooksons, but have not looked to other bullion dealers for a Palladium based 9ct - I thought palladium based was for 18ct White. Is there a Palladium based 9ct bullion source in the UK that I can go to - certainly would prefer this type to nickel based.

To plate or not, if I am using Nickel based 9ct then did not want to run the risk of any allergic metal reaction, hence I thought plating would be the best approach. I agree well polished 9ct White looks good without the plating and having to re-plate will be a pain and added cost for the client.

Thanks for your responses.

Jim