Casting blue and purple gold

[Des]

Hello All,

Has any one attempted to cast these colours into rings? I know these are intermetalic alloys and are very very brittle. I was just interested to know as I have seen it used as a stone set type item but no rings. Is there an alloy in these colours that can be cast into this type of product.

I know there is a Blue in Indium and Gallium alloys without oxidising the surface but are very very brittle.

Regards

Des

[heanstudio]

Dear Des,

With blue gold, various claims have been made over the last 15 years by various people as to what can and cannot be done. I am not aware of any suitable blue gold casting alloy. However, I think that some alloys can be cast, but working properties are difficult.

Purple gold is predominently aluminium, and unworkable, but again could probably be cast.

I would suggest to first make the blue and or purple/lilac gold elements, insert these into the required waxes, and then cast what ever normal gold alloys onto them.

Cautions: I do not know what whould happen to the qualities and or properties of the blue or purple alloys during a burnout cycle, and how one would deal with pickling and cleaning the combined products. Also I do not know what the melting point for the purple gold is, but with a very high Al content by volume, it could be quite low.

For further technical information I suggest you make contact with Dr. Chris Corti, via the World gold council. I do not have the details to hand, but I am sure they could be easily found on the web.

Sorry I cannot be more positive on this subject.

Regards
Apple

[Des]

No problems Apple,

Its not one of those things that has been very successful in the past. I did cast some blue yesterday and it polished up quite nice but all you have to do is drop it on the floor and it broke into a thousand bits.

There is not much information around and I have read Chris Cortis paper on coloured golds. I will try some other alloys and keep you posted.

Des