patina on gold

Les Riddell

Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2008
Messages
83
Location
Cromwell New Zealand
i have been searching this wonderful forum for a while now and have learned heaps. because there is so much information is here im not sure how much this subject has been talked about. i have some personal experience with this and thought i might share it with you all in case it can be of help for a few. most of your who use a bit of gold in inlays for guns and knives use very pure gold, 22k and above, this will not work. but for all the lower yellow gold alloys 18k and below it will. traditional yellow and red alloys use copper and silver as the alloying material. it is true that gold is very resistant to oxidation but the alloy materials are not. when added to the gold to form a particular k material you can use this to your advantage. all jewellery gold will bronze and discolour in time if not worn. the same reaction is taking place as happens in sterling silver. the copper in the alloy is oxidizing. you can use the same chemicals with jewellery gold alloys as you can with sterling. the best are lime sulphur and liver of sulphur. with the addition of gentle heat (i use a bic lighter) backgrounds can be made very dark shades of reddish brown to almost black. this might seem like very basic knowledge but it is the basic stuff that we miss for the most part when searching for complex solutions. give it a try. and forgive me if i am repeating something.

Les
 
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