The best way of alloying goldAlloying gold increases the strength or hardness of gold but also reduces a bit its malleability and ductility. But it’s necessary for making your gold jewelry. Where do the different colors of gold come from? The varying colors of gold jewelry are accomplished by means of the different metals alloyed to pure gold! An alloy is the mixture of two or more metals to increase the strength of the base metal and change its color. Gold takes on different colors depending on the constituents of the alloy (which metals used) and on their proportions (%) to the gold. If you want to watch a video now about alloying gold, scroll down.
How to alloy gold and make white, pink or red gold?
The purity of alloyed gold is expressed as its karat (K) value (in the UK it’s spelled as Carat, ct), defined as the proportion of pure gold present. Fine gold is usually alloyed with fine silver and another metal (copper). The proportion of silver and the other metal gives it different colors.
But you can also make green gold… how about that? How do you alloy gold?One hundred percent gold (“pure” or fine gold) is equivalent to 24 karat gold.This means that alloying gold, its karat, is a fraction of 24K gold. The proportion of precious metal in the alloy is defined by its karat. When you buy fine gold its standard of fineness (its “pure” state) is parts per 1000. This “pure” gold is defined as 24K gold. So,
To make yellow gold, use silver (Ag) and copper (Cu) in the same proportion to achieve the gold alloy using the following formula:
Example 1: You have 10 grams of Pure Gold (24K) and you want to take it to18K yellow gold.
Example 2: You have 25 grams of 24K gold and want to take it to 14K yellow gold.
Example 3: Say you have 20 grams of 24K gold and want to make 18K pink gold.
Look at this video for more info about different colors of gold.
For professionally hallmarking your gold jewelry, see this page.
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