Many people are under the impression that soldering gold filled wire is either very soldering gold filled wiredifficult or impossible. After reading the following tips, you'll see how easy it is to do. Read to the end to learn about fixing a common problem.


What to Know About Gold Filled Wire

Gold filled wire is a layer of solid gold that is at least 10K (.417% pure gold), 12K (50% pure gold) gold or 14K (.585% pure gold) that has been mechanically bonded with heat and pressure to a thicker piece of base metal, most commonly a brass alloy that is 90% copper and 10% brass. The gold layer is fused to the base metal, resulting in a product that has all the beauty of its actual karat gold plus long lasting resistance to wear.

gold filled wire diagram
The base metal can sometimes cause problems when you are trying to solder. If the gold filled wire is overheated, the brass can come to the surface and cause that copper color that's so annoying.


How to Make Soldering Gold Easy

Here are some tips for soldering gold-filled wire that works for me:

  1. I make a flux of boric acid and denatured alcohol that I mix and keep in a sealed jar.
  2. I dip the whole piece in the acid/alcohol solution, and then remove it with tongs and let it dry before I heat it.
  3. As it dries, a powdery-looking coating forms over the gold-filled piece.
  4. Paint the areas to be joined with flux and a paintbrush, applying a thin coat to each piece.


Be Sure to Use Gold Solder, Not Silver

I use either 14K extra easy solder or 10K easy solder. Make sure you know how to pick solder, so you control the amount, as well as where you are going to put and place it on the seam. You'll also want to take the following precautions — I practiced on jump rings until I got it down right. I have lots of jump rings, LOL.

  1. Don't heat the whole piece like you would for silver.soldering torch Just heat the local area that you are soldering.
  2. Get the soldering torch on and off quickly; don't let it sit there and don't overheat it. Overheating causes the brass inside to come to the surface, which creates a copper color.
  3. Use a fairly low flame (but not so low that it takes a long time to get it up to temp) and heat until the solder flows and then pickle your piece as usual. I often solder one side, then flip it over and apply more solder. For some reason, with the gold filled metal, the solder doesn't pull through completely like silver does.
  4. When you're finished, you can file or sand if you need to, but not too much. You don't want to go through the gold layer to the brass.
  5. Polish as usual. Buffing with red rouge will get rid of any residual oxidation.
 
person questioning illustrationOh No! You held the torch in one place a little too long and now your beautiful seam is a pinky, coppery color.

What to do? There are several simple ways to get rid of the raised copper on gold filled wire and sheet.
  • Super pickle works the fastest (but you still have to sand and polish)
  • Half pickle-half hydrogen peroxide, HOT: You can watch the mix turn blue as the copper dissolves into the solution. It must be hot! It only lasts a short while, like 10 minutes or so, because the peroxide just turns to water. But you can always dump it right back into your pickle pot.

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