Daily Wire Tip Sept. 6: What’s Gold Filled Wire?
Daily Wire Jewelry Making Tip for
September 6, 2010
Question:
What is “gold filled” wire?
-Trudy in Webster, Texas
Answer:
When I am asked how to describe gold-filled wire, my response is: picture a sword and its sheathe. The sheathe is the karat gold, and the sword is the pure jeweler’s brass. The two are fused together with heat so that the gold will not crack off, or easily wear off.
For a technical explanation I went to our Glossary of Jewelry Terms, where gold-filled is described:
Gold-filled (GF): A gold alloy plate made by soldering, brazing, welding or other means that is not less than 10kt fineness, where the plating constitutes at least 1/20 of the weight of the metal in the entire article. The term must be preceded by the karat fineness of the plating, such as 14kt Gold Filled. When using the term “gold overlay,” manufacturers are permitted to use a layer of gold that is less than 1/20 the weight of the entire piece, but they must stamp the proportion of the gold layer on the jewelry.
Answer contributed by Dale “Cougar” Armstrong
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This is more of a tip; when doing wire weaving, use rubber earring backs to hold beads on your wire and it also helps to hold your wires apart, so you don’t pull them together to tight.
I’ve used them also when making earrings, when your wire is not very long to hold a bead in place.
Kind of a misnomer really, considering its not FILLED with gold, but gold plated. -headscratch-
Jenn, I agree however we are not the ones who named it thus.
I have struggled numerous times to help customers understand clearly what gold filled means. Most of them equate gold filled to plated despite telling them about the obvious differences.
I like your picture of the sword and sheath. Have you any”pictures” that would describe the relative thickness of gold in golf filled wire compared to the thickness of gold plate.
Is an overlay the same thing as plated? I wondered if they have to stamp (or are SUPPOSED to stamp) the amount of gold used for that purpose…
Debbie, gold overlay is the same as gold filled not plated. Gold plated is a thin, gold colored coating that is applied via electrolysis and wears off verfy quickly. This link will take you to a page with a variety of ways to describe gold-plate: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&defl=en&q=define:Gold+plated&sa=X&ei=QTaGTIv7JoP7lweWgMH0Dw&ved=0CBIQkAE
For more information of legal terms, follow this link and scroll down to 23.4, all of the FTC terms and definitions regarding gold; plated, filled, etc. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/jewel-gd.shtm
A long time ago the term was gold filled with X (brass, copper, sterling). Because we humans tend to abbreviate phrases, common usage formed the habit of dropping off the end of the phrase, leaving us with the term “Gold Filled,” which is confusing in a world where a jelly filled donut has the jelly on the inside, not the outside.
If we were in the habit of saying it is a powder donut filled with raspberry jelly, then Gold Filled would make more sense.