Its been forever! Hi guys, quick question - Gold bars

Hey all, been forever!
Used to refine gold mostly dental but now a full time gold miner!
I do own a website that gets me lots of traffic and lots of questions.
My question today is this
I can tell when I look at "fake" gold bars and ONE of the telltale signs is how when they shrink, they shrink in the center and have a dimple/depression (probably lead and then spray painted gold), where as 24k gold shrinks along the edges and has no depression in the center. Whats the "technical" explanation for why the pure gold shrinks on edges and fake bars are shrunk in the center?

Thanks guys!

Ill post some pictures of the gold I find in another post, its KILLER crystallized gold!

mlgdave

mlgdave said:

I can tell when I look at "fake" gold bars and ONE of the telltale signs is how when they shrink, they shrink in the center and have a dimple/depression (probably lead and then spray painted gold), where as 24k gold shrinks along the edges and has no depression in the center.

Ill post some pictures of the gold I find in another post, its KILLER crystallized gold!

mlgdave

Click to expand...

You have it backwards. When you melt pure gold, as it cools, it usually creates a dimple in the middle called a "pipe". It can look like flowing molten gold, or it can look crystalized, but nonetheless I've had very few melts that did not show one.

And as a west coast prospector, I never show pics of our gold anywhere, because most of the areas we go to are pretty private, and produce very well, and we don't want thousands more people wanting to prospect. There are already way too many people prospecting over there, between Idaho, to where you are, and I know you are well aware of this. We've even caught people on some of the private claims that we go to, and it's only going to get worse, the more people are aware of what people like us find out there.

On a side note, have you heard when GPAA is going to start up the shows again. We were at the very last show (with you) in Phoenix, but hope they are going to start back up soon.

I dont mind showing pictures of mine. I live at my gold mine and am heavily armed and 7 guard dogs (well 2 reallY)
No idea when shows are gonna start again. GPAA has none planned for 2021

When I say shrink on the edges I mean like these 2.

mlgdave said:

I dont mind showing pictures of mine. I live at my gold mine and am heavily armed and 7 guard dogs (well 2 reallY)
No idea when shows are gonna start again. GPAA has none planned for 2021

When I say shrink on the edges I mean like these 2.

Click to expand...

My first comment, wasn't due to concern for your safety (no offense), it was more out of concern for a new plethora of prospectors flooding the areas around there, and the rest of the west.

I knew there were no shows scheduled as of right now, was just wondering if you had heard anything different.

I see what you mean about your bars. If you've ever been to a big refinery like JM, or Colt, you'll see that they keep torches on the pours, to allow the gold to cool very slowly, to inhibit that from happening.

Dave,

Gold only does the pipe when it's allowed some time to cool down and crystallize. I've made 5N gold bars in the 5-100 oz range that were flatter than Kansas. Usually this involves me keeping a very bushy soft hydrogen flame on the gold and the mold rather hot.

Easiest way for me to tell pure gold is how it smears when it's shear cut.

Lou! Wassup!
Ill text you some pics!

D