# Help a Newbie with Re-melting and Re-casting



## moess (Nov 2, 2015)

Hi there.
I have a question regarding the re-melting of 18k white gold and sterling silver.
After casting, how many times can I re-melt and re-cast either metal before I need to refine it.



P.S.
Love this forum. 
This is my first time posting, I've read a few posts but I'm fairly new to the casting/refining process.


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## upcyclist (Nov 2, 2015)

moess said:


> Hi there.
> I have a question regarding the re-melting of 18k white gold and sterling silver.
> After casting, how many times can I re-melt and re-cast either metal before I need to refine it.



First off, are you talking about casting, then reusing your sprues and filings? Or are you just talking about melting shot, karating, etc.? 

If you're talking about casting final products, it does depend on what you're making and your purity standards (and if you'll be hallmarking and selling it). Obviously, if you sell something stamped as 18K, it darn well better be at least 75.00% gold, including after you use any solder on it. If you're properly pricing your wares (and properly valuing your time), it won't hurt to include a little extra gold (e.g., 18.5k). If you're operating on a very large scale, of course, you'll want to shave that number down to the bare minimum to keep you on the right side of the law, but if you're refining your own gold, you're probably not at that scale.

When I'm casting jewelry for sale, I generally stick to the rule of thumb of half recycled material and half virgin casting material. You can go with more recycled material, but you'll probably need increasing amounts of flux. Note that commercial casting gold/silver tends to contain a small amount of antioxidants and flow agents--these keep the metal more manageable for casting. I tend to start from 24K gold and karat it down with master alloys, and those alloys contain those flow/antioxidant helpers.

You can also skip the virgin material (which I tend to do more with gold when I have stuff to recycle), and if the casting fails, that's your clue for more borax flux or more virgin material. But that's only if you can afford the loss of time and materials involved in recasting (and making a new wax pattern!). If it's a one-off wax carving, I'm more careful; if it's a mass-produced pattern that I have extras of (I always buy at least one spare), I don't worry about it so much.

Hopefully I got the gist of what you're after, and that helped. Of course, extra voices also help, especially when they don't all agree


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## Grelko (Nov 2, 2015)

moess said:


> Hi there.
> I have a question regarding the re-melting of 18k white gold and sterling silver.
> After casting, how many times can I re-melt and re-cast either metal before I need to refine it.



If you're just talking about the metals in general, you can re-melt/re-cast them as many times as you want. 

As long as you don't get them TOO hot "boiling", you shouldn't lose much. You might also get tiny particles stuck in the dish etc, and lose a bit that way,

If you ended up getting dirt, or other things in there, the purity would go down also, then you'd need to refine it eventually.


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