Stainless steel jewellery.

[nickvc]

This might be a little way off what most members encounter but i had a friend who had a bag of stainless steel bracelets with gold soldered on to parts of them.I stripped the bracelets down as much as possible and then soaked the gold parts in hydrochloric acid for 24 hours with a boil to finish off and then fresh acid added and boiled again to remove the final traces. The yield for my friend was 10.7 grams of 18 carat scrap,not bad for something most people would throw away.

 

[machiavelli976]

i have met a lot of this stuff also. the filled gold is pretty thick despite the small surface covered. also rhodium plated stainless steel exists. i don't know how much is fashion and how much is poverty to justify the market. i've heard about tungsten and tantalum jewels but never seen them. hope to see some day povered uranium jewellery cause i'd like to make some gifts.

 

[Irons]

This might be a little way off what most members encounter but i had a friend who had a bag of stainless steel bracelets with gold soldered on to parts of them.I stripped the bracelets down as much as possible and then soaked the gold parts in hydrochloric acid for 24 hours with a boil to finish off and then fresh acid added and boiled again to remove the final traces. The yield for my friend was 10.7 grams of 18 carat scrap,not bad for something most people would throw away.

It seems you have found your niche. :mrgreen: Sometimes, a little creative hand labor makes the difference between profit and loss.