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Hello! Hope someone can help. I have lots of old 22ct yellow gold I want to reduce to 18ct. I am okay with the % of fine silver and/or copper I need to add, but any idea where I can buy fine copper?? A friend says a casters reluctantly gave her some a long time ago. Any other ideas?
Also how does adding copper/silver affect the flow/ pouring of the gold? I’m looking for the best flow over colour.
Any help would be fantastic!
Thanks!!
Try searching for 'Copper bullion uk' and/or 'Copper ingot uk' using your favourite search engine. I got a lot of hits for Copper 999 of varying quality for everything from an ounce to many kilograms. Some looked dubious, many appeared genuine enough. There were a large number on ebay from sources in the UK and Germany. I can't say that any of the companies looked familiar to me, but then I have never bought any copper bullion. You may want to do a search on the company once you have found a likely suspect.
Hi Paul,
Thanks so much for your advice... I will give that a go. Have you any idea on how adding copper or silver affects how fluid the gold will be if I try to pour into a wire Mould for example? I’ve heard fine silver can be hard to cast as it doesn’t flow well? Any advice on that would be great if you have any.
Thanks again!!
Hi,Quote:
Originally Posted by Aurelia
If you have any old electrical cables you don't need you can strip the protective outer sheath and use the copper conductors inside. This is what I use as the copper in electrical cable is very high purity. Also, the advantage is being stranded wires it is easier to cut up the amount you need.
If you aren’t confident with stripping cables then you can try a scrap metal merchant or one I haven’t tried yet: http://www.metalsupermarkets.co.uk/metals/copper/
This is the copper you want (similar to electrical cables): http://www.metalsupermarkets.co.uk/m...r/copper-c101/
Not sure they are the cheapest though.
I hadn't realised that C101 Copper is 99.9% pure, in which case, if 99.9% is pure enough for your purpose, this is where I most often source copper: https://www.nogginend.com/browse/Copper
I bought this copper bar on Amazon: Copper Bar - 1000g - poured - Leipzig Precious Metals Processing - Copper 999/1000 and it is 99.9% pure.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Kay
I haven't used any of it because in my full time job I have access to a lot of scrap electrical cable/copper busbars and that is what I use in alloying with fine silver to make sterling. I had my sterling tested at the London Assay Office laboratory and it passed both the Silver content test (925) and the Nickel test (NIL Nickel). So I am confident in saying that 99.9% copper is pure enough for alloying with precious metals and I am also confident in saying that electrical cables/busbars are a good source for pure copper.
HOWEVER...I will always send a sample to the Assay Office laboratory for testing whenever I make a batch of alloy from a new source of copper. I haven't had to do that yet. I think this is recommended practice as far as due diligence is concerned.
Copper plumbing pipe. :) 99.90% pure.
BS EN 1976
Thanks so much handmadeblanks! Really interesting and great tip!
Great to note Paul! Thanks again for your helpful info!
Thank you ps_bond!!