There are a number of reasons to avoid casting with “old” gold. What you thought could save you a few bucks could end up costing you big. Here are a few reasons to steer clear of mixing your old with new:
- Mixing various alloys can greatly affect color, mechanical properties, casting properties, and numerous other variables. When casting, you need consistent procedures to get consistent results.
- Scrap gold can contain solder seams. These solder seams could vary from gold and silver to antimony, bismuth, or even lead systems. Cadmium and indium – common gold and silver components – can affect mechanical properties and soundness of castings. Lead, bismuth, and antimony can cause complete failure of the casting even if small traces are present.
- Decorative plating can also be a problem. Rhodium has been known to cause casting problems.
- The karat of scrap cannot always accurately be determined; the final quality of a cast piece may not turn out as planned.
- There is no assurance that the scrap pieces you purchase are of high quality karat metal. Once metal has been fatigued, it will not react as fresh metal would.
The best thing to do with scrap gold is scrap it (explore options with our Clean Scrap Program) – separate it out and send it to a refiner. Then, start out with clean, fresh metal from Stuller. We offer:
• A variety of colors and qualities
• Raw metal certified to be at least 99.9% pure
• 100% certified recycled material
• Ensured quality and consistency through traditional fire assay and x-ray fluorescence analysis
Talk to your vendor and work on a solution that best fits your needs. You and your customer will be more satisfied with the results.