advice re: bezel thickness in 18ct gold

[Birgitte]

Dear all,
I have an opal which I am going to set in an 18ct gold bezel and solder to a silver base. I haven't used 18ct gold before and having had a browse through the forum I noticed on one thread that 0.3mm thickness was mentioned for a bezel. I was planning to use 0.5mm - will that be problematic? All being well I will solder the bezel to 1.1mm thick silver...
Any thoughts/advice gratefully recieved, my work has mostly been in silver + 9ct gold to date!

I've just joined the forum and will fill out my profile details soon but need to bite the bullet and start this ring...

Thanks in advance,
Birgitte

[Dennis]

Hi Birgitte,

If you are just using the strength in you fingers, then 0.3mm is about right. Anything thicker and you will probably need a setting punch and a hammer, or a hammer handpiece.

If you prefer the look of thicker bezels you could also use a finer alloy, but the colour match would be off. Dennis.

[Birgitte]

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for your reply - yes I was going to just use my own strength with a bezel rocker - I've done that with 9ct before and thought that 18ct would be softer and therefore easier...
Will order some 0.3mm and save the 0.5 for something else!

Birgitte

[ajda]

I'd always choose 18 over 9 carat gold, for several reasons - but hardness/softness is not one of them. Alloys vary according to which metals are alloyed with the gold, but more gold doesn't necessarily mean a softer alloy. (See here - http://www.9carat.co.uk/hardnessofgoldalloys.html for a simple intro.) I agree with Dennis that 0.5mm is probably too much for a bezel if you're working by hand.
Alan

[Birgitte]

Thanks for that info. Alan that link was very helpful
Birgitte

[LydiaNiz]

I used 0.3mm 18ct on this opal - any more and it would have been tough going (was fairly terrified putting pressure on her)