soldering 18ct white and 18ct yellow gold

[weesa]

I am looking for a bit of help with this one as I mainly work with silver and have only done a few gold bits of jewellery.

I have been asked by a friend to re design her 18ct yellow gold wedding band as it no longer fits her. She would like me to use part of the original ring in a newly designed 18ct white gold ring.

My question is can you solder both metals together and if so what solder to use? Is this and easy task or are there issues with different melting temps? and can you plate the white around about the yellow?

sorry for all the questions lol but I really don't know much about gold hopefully someone on here does

[Dennis]

and can you plate the white around about the yellow?

18 ct hard yellow solder should be safe for both, as it melts between 790 and 830 degrees C. Use Auflux/Auroflux and a charcoal block to solder on. We do have more expert opinions and I hope they can confirm this.

Could you please clarify the rest of your question as quoted above? Dennis.

[weesa]

thanks Dennis. a few different things there I will need to look into.
As for the quote section......If the ring is made from yellow and white gold and she wants a highly polished finish for the white, I believe it would need rhodium plated. Not sure how the plating process works but can it be done around the yellow gold section? It might be something I would need to consider when designing it if there would be an issue.

Thanks again
Lisa

[Dennis]

A professional plater can certainly plate selected parts of your ring and make sure that the plating is thick enough to resist wear(for a time). But why plate it wen the colour will be completely different. You can achieve all the polish you need yourself.

[Wallace]

is it not possible to melt the metals together to give the wearer a unique one off colour and ring? 18Cts means they should mix well or even, perhaps you could think about fusing them. Sorry to butt in - just an enquiry really.

[weesa]

is it not possible to melt the metals together to give the wearer a unique one off colour and ring? 18Cts means they should mix well or even, perhaps you could think about fusing them. Sorry to butt in - just an enquiry really.

Not at all glad of the input. I will suggest this to her but she is pretty set on her idea to half the original band (to make two half circle shapes) to be the bottom of two new rings and remake the top section, that would be on show in white gold.
I am now just trying to work out if its possible to do, nothing like getting a wee design challenge that's out of your comfort zone

[Goldsmith]

Hi Lisa,
I didn't comment before because I did not visualize what you were going to do with the ring. Now that you have explained then I see no problem with soldering the white and yellow together with 18ct yellow solder, I would use 18ct. medium for this. Then when you have finished the ring, polish it and then find a decent rhodium plater and ask them to rhodium plate the white gold section only. This can be easily done by masking the yellow gold section with a blocking agent. Rhodium plating will whiten the look of the 18ct white gold as most 18ct white gold alloys polish well but will gain the grey colour of stainless steel when worn for a while.
Good luck.
James

[weesa]

Thanks very much James. I am quite excited about the challenge may have a we practice on some gold first tho, just to be on the safe side.
Lisa