Gold wire

Ed Caffrey

Ed Caffrey

Joined
Jul 23, 1999
Messages
1,409
Searching for knowledge here. I've got a project going and it calls for twisted gold wire. I've collected several jewlery supply catalogs, spoken with a couple, and am still not sure what I should be looking for. I have worked with 18k gold wire previously. Twisted it myself, and after much difficulty got it inlayed in the handle. It seemed to work harden rapidly, and was a real bear to get it to lay flat. I'm guessing, but assume I should be going with 24k (softer?)wire. I would like something that is dead soft, and a little eaiser to work with, but am not knowledgable enough to talk in the same terms that the jewlery supply houses do. Tips and suggests are welcome. Also if anyone has a goood "source", that would be nice too. Thanks Gang!



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Ed Caffrey
"The Montana Bladesmith"
http://www.caffreyknives.com
 
Ed
I used to do a lot of silver work and a little with gold.If I remember right 14 carat worked fine for inlays. You can soften gold or silver wire by heating it cherry red and immediately quenching it water.Mixes up all the molecules.Been a long time but I think Ebersole And Griegers are still around.
A small bit of help maybe.
Take Care
TJ Smith

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Ed,

24k is as soft as you can get, but it might be too soft for your application. You can buy 18k annealed and that might make it easier to work. I would recommend Hoover & Strong for gold wire and sheet supply. They will anneal the materials for you as well as doing custom refining services if needed. They have wire in all sorts of shapes and sizes (rounds, flat, square, half round, low dome, step bezel). They might even be able to twist it for you. If nothing else their catalog has a lot of information and precious metals, casting, and tips for jewelry making and material manipulation.

Hoover & Strong
10700 Trade Road
Richmond, VA 23236-3000
1-800-759-9997 http://www.hooverandstrong.com/

Hope this helps.

Take care,
Tom
 
Hey Ed, Iv'e twisted a lot of brass wire restoring old sabers, but never gold wire. Sorry I can't be any help. If you need some nice stones for that project I can help there.

Jake
 
Thanks folks! I sent off for the Hoover&Strong catalog. And Jake, I have plans in the future to learn some stone setting for a few projects that are down the road. Again, thanks to all!



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Ed Caffrey
"The Montana Bladesmith"
http://www.caffreyknives.com
 
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