Question for jewellers - Gold fill wire

Craft Talk
1

Hi All
Just recently I got myself some gold fill wire for the first time - having winced at the price of solid gold.
I was just wondering if there is any way to recycle the scraps left over from making? Is is worth anything? It feels wrong to just chuck the scraps.

Thanks

Nana

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I’m afraid you can’t melt them down as they are gold plated and you would end up with an alloy that was mostly brass with a little gold. Gold filled wire is a thick gold plate that I think has to be greater than 5 microns. It does not scratch off, but that does mean that the scrap can’t be recycled.

Sam x

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Thanks Sam
Yes, that’s what I was afraid of. There’s talk on the net of refining processes to purify it, but it sounds like quite an involved process.
I’ll just have to minimise the waste :grimacing:

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4

I’m sure that’s right. If you had a very large quantity of scrap you might be able to get just enough gold to do something with-but it would have to be an industrial size quantity.

Sam x

2 Likes
5

Next time you could always try gold vermeil which is gold over silver, then you can recycle it.

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Good point! I Didn’t realise Vermeil had to be silver