Melting down old jewellery

[acute_angle]

Hi everyone,

I have a few loose pieces of jewellery which I am fairly sure are 18k yellow gold:

- 1 loose hoop earring (possibly 14k - the colour tone looks a bit different)
- 1 pair of earrings (one is fine, the other one has a broken hinge)
- 1 bracelet

A picture is attached - sorry about the bad quality!

I cannot wear these pieces anymore as they are outdated and/or are too small for me. I want to re-use the gold by possibly melting these pieces down and making some new pieces of jewellery out of them (a pendant and a ring, possibly).

Would a jeweller be willing to melt these pieces down and make new pieces for me, or would they be adverse to doing this? I have not really dealt with any jewellers one-on-one so I am not sure.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Manmountain]

Shop around. Some jewelers may tell you that "there is too much solder" in your gold and will want to give you scrap value in trade. Some will be perfectly happy to melt your gold into a custom piece.

 

[eac]

Hi there,

I have found that some jewelers don''t like to combine gold from different pieces because of differences in the gold alloys. Generally, you melt a piece, or a matched pair of pieces like your earrings, to make a piece.

I just commissioned a jeweler to melt down a gold item for me (weight: 15 grams) and make it into something else. I think perhaps jewelers are getting more open to this as gold gets more expensive!

If it was me, I would try and have the paired hoops melted down into a ring. I would try to sell the loose earring and the bracelet. If the loose earring is heavy (those hoops often aren''t) you might get a pendant out of it. The filigree bracelet is very pretty as it is! I had a necklace that was "not me", extremely blingy, but well made, and I felt better selling it than melting it down.

 

[eac]

Another follow up here on this topic, because what I found out will be of interest to anyone doing something similar...

...so I commissioned this jeweler to make a piece for me based on refabricating this large flat ugly gold pendant I had. I received the new piece back, and it looked fantastic, but, comparing it to the original piece I''d handed over, it was a little light. I was expecting some gold loss but not that much. So, I called the jeweler and asked. He said he had taken the piece, priced it as scrap, and applied the scrap price against the new gold and fabrication of the piece, and created it using new gold at the same carat level.

This wasn''t what I had thought was going to happen, based on our discussion at the time of commission, and I wish he''d been clearer. But it does show how "having a piece melted down" is likely to work.

Any further thoughts on this, folks?

 

[Love in Bloom]

I think the process of melting down old jewelry and making new stuff out of it seems far easier than actually it is. It can be quite costly to refine metals and there are a lot of harsh chemicals involved, not to mention the fact that if it is not done correctly the resulting piece may be brittle and not of lasting quallity in spite of honest efforts. Check out this website:

http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/ajm-roads-2-recovery.htm

It explains the refining process way better than I can.
HTH,
LinB

 

[Manmountain]

>I think the process of melting down old jewelry and making new stuff out of it seems far >easier than actually it is. It can be quite costly to refine metals and there are a lot of >harsh chemicals involved, not to mention the fact that if it is not done correctly the >resulting piece may be brittle and not of lasting quallity in spite of honest efforts. >Check out this website:

Most yellow, green or pink gold can be remelted with no loss in quality. Sometimes a small amount of zinc needs to be added as remelting golds alloyed with zinc can burn this metal out. It acts as a deoxidizer and slightly lowers the melting points. Many jewelers are happy to use your scrap if yours fits into this category.

White golds are a whole other and very complicated story. Dental golds, although yellow, often contain elements that can render the metal almost useless for forging.

Shop around.

 

[AGBF]

Date: 7/20/2007 12:54:35 AM
Author: Manmountain
Most yellow, green or pink gold can be remelted with no loss in quality. Sometimes a small amount of zinc needs to be added as remelting golds alloyed with zinc can burn this metal out. It acts as a deoxidizer and slightly lowers the melting points. Many jewelers are happy to use your scrap if yours fits into this category.


White golds are a whole other and very complicated story. Dental golds, although yellow, often contain elements that can render the metal almost useless for forging.


Shop around.

Bruce,

I do not remember seeing you around before, but I stick to certain areas of Pricescope. Jewelry Pieces is one of my favorite areas since I love yellow gold jewelry. At any rate, I have to ask: what is the origin of your nickname? And welcome.

Deborah

 

[Manmountain]

At any rate, I have to ask: what is the origin of your nickname? And welcome.


Deborah,

I assumed that nom de plume a couple of decades ago when most computers were communicating @ 1200-2400 baud. I stole it from Hunter S. Thompson. A character named Manmountain Dense.

 

[AGBF]

Date: 7/27/2007 9:59:57 PM
Author: Manmountain
I assumed that nom de plume a couple of decades ago when most computers were communicating @ 1200-2400 baud. I stole it from Hunter S. Thompson. A character named Manmountain Dense.

We mourned his passing here on Pricescope a while back. Leonid was a fan of his and had some videotapes about him available here for a while. I learned a lot more from the videotapes than I had known from reading one of his books. If Manmountain Dense was in the book I read I am afraid I have forgotten it! What book?

Deb