Whinging!

[ps_bond]

Entirely self-inflicted grumping

A friend has asked me to make a ring and a pair of earrings from scrap gold. The stuff was bought overseas, so isn't hallmarked; I'm treating it as 9k (and to be fair, it handles like it). It's prone to cracking, so the resulting ingot has been remelted a couple of times before being worked down (and yes, anything with solder on it has been cut away - although some of the solder looked more like plumbers solder...). I've got the ring made, now I'm trying to set the stones. They are ostensibly diamonds, but with the worst cuts I think I've ever seen - the largest is sort-of roundish but with a square corner; most of them I'm not entirely sure what is supposed to be table and what is culet, so carving seats for them is keeping me entertained. I'm also handling them as if they're quartz, just to be safe.

I really, really should have followed my own advice - sell it for scrap and buy nice, new, *known* gold with the proceeds. But... The gold has sentimental value, despite my insistence that all gold is atomically the same. In future I think I need to claim that all gold is linked and that an emotional attachment to one nugget equates to an emotional attachment to all of them - but I'd probably be asked for a detailed explanation of how that works.

Just say no!!!

[pearlescence]

Add in the 'doing it for a friend' factor and you might as well emigrate

[Goldsmith]

Jobs for friends can a pain in the proverbial!! If ever I go through this process of making new pieces from collected gold. I always explain that I will have to add some fine gold to the melted mixture to compensate for any bad alloys and I explain the extra cost before proceeding.

James

[Dennis]

Poor old Bond. Well you won't have gone through this in vain if at least we can see a picture of the final result. I have suffered a great deal at the hands of friends who didn't know their table from their culet and do my best to resist impossible jobs. Dennis.

[art925]

Poor Peter, been there alot in the past 12 months; alot of my gold business has come from this recycling route. I soon learned to tell clients of the need to add additional clean gold to the melting pot, which they are fine with especially if I stress that the weight of incomming gold is insufficient for the new design. Add this to the stress of working for friends and it leads to heavy drinking.

[SJEgan]

Eeeek! That sounds like the job from hell!

I just finished making some gold wedding rings for friends, fortunately new fresh gold form cookson but it was my first time working in gold and they had only asked me about 3.5 weeks before the wedding bearing in mind they live in Germany and I had to get the rings hallmarked! So definitely the most stressful commission I've ever had! I should have charged more to cover my costs but fortunately it worked out ok since I now have pics of gold rings added to my site and a commission was the only way I could ever afford to take the risk on gold! Now I'm just praying they make it to Germany on time and they fit, since they were a bit iffy on the sizes! ahhhh the stress of it all!

[lilia]

Sounds terrible. Were you setting them in a pave setting? I can only imagine what a nightmare that would be. The gold wasn't Turkish by any chance? I've heard a lot of very bad feedback about that gold, even 750.

Off topic, what microscope do you have, Peter? I am looking for one and cannot decide.

[ps_bond]

Yes, they're pave... At least I've been taught well enough to be able to deal with wonky stones, but it isn't something I'd advocate. I think this is Egyptian in origin, not entirely sure.

I have a Nikon SMZ-10; if you can find one for a reasonable price they're optically very nice. If I had to buy one new, I'd probably go for a Meiji - expensive beasts, but from the brief look through one I've had, they're difficult to beat.
There's some scope info on one of Steve Lindsay's pages - http://www.airgraver.com/microscopes.htm

BTW - I'm under no illusions; I've made a rod for my own back with this one.

[lilia]

Yes, they're pave... At least I've been taught well enough to be able to deal with wonky stones, but it isn't something I'd advocate. I think this is Egyptian in origin, not entirely sure.

I have a Nikon SMZ-10; if you can find one for a reasonable price they're optically very nice. If I had to buy one new, I'd probably go for a Meiji - expensive beasts, but from the brief look through one I've had, they're difficult to beat.
There's some scope info on one of Steve Lindsay's pages - http://www.airgraver.com/microscopes.htm

BTW - I'm under no illusions; I've made a rod for my own back with this one.

Thank you for the link - makes matters much clearer now. Oh, yes, Meiji, I was looking for one second hand and even then they are still expensive.

Good luck with the ring

[caroleallen]

When I read this last night, I'd just had an e-mail from someone asking me to make engagement and wedding rings in recycled white gold with diamonds. I was just about to say yes! I've suggested they sell the metal and use the money to get the rings made in new gold.