Blue gold!

[Susanlee178]

Hello Pricescope gurus! This is my first post, after stalking around on here like a creeper for awhile. I'm finally desperate enough to make my own post/plea for help.

I'm looking for a blue gold band to stack with my green gold wedding ring. The problem: I can't find blue gold, of any kind, anywhere! I'm getting desperate. Do any of you know where I can find this, apparently mystical alloy?

<3 Susan

 

[imposterpockets]

I am no gold expert, but I was intrigued enough to look up blue gold. Found a blurb about it on Wikipedia that makes it seem like it is not really well suited to jewelry. Apparently blue gold is a alloy of gold and indium, which is something known as an "intermetallic compound."

The intermetallic compounds tend to have poor corrosion resistance. The less noble elements are leached to the environment, and a gold-rich surface layer is formed.

The above makes it sound like the indium part of the blue gold alloy is not very stable and would dissipate leaving whatever gold is leftover from the alloy. (This is a guess. I am no expert at metallurgy.)

Direct contact of blue and purple gold elements with skin should be avoided as exposure to sweat may result in metal leaching and discoloration of the metal surface.

Doesn't sound promising as a material for making rings.

You can read the full information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colored_gold#Purple_and_blue_golds

 

[imposterpockets]

Apparently, a gold indium alloy is also rather brittle unless other metals are added to it.

 

[Susanlee178]

That is terrible news! Thanks for the info though, you guys are awesome!

 

[Lady_Disdain]

There is also an old recipe for "blue" gold that uses iron. It is not blue (quite greyish), brittle and pretty much unworkable. Yet it often listed in the old books. I always wanted to ask the author where it was used and why it was included!

And congratulations on your green gold band. I love these less usual alloys!

 

[AGBF]

Blue "gold" exists and we had a thread about it here in the past. The gold may not be gold as much as other metals, though. I meant to post this days ago, but got waylaid. I was sure someone else would have posted a link by today! (One of our posters tried to mix up some blue gold himself!)

Link to Other Pricescope Thread on Blue Gold...[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/blue-gold-any-pics-info.170870/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/blue-gold-any-pics-info.170870/[/URL]

Deb/AGBF