Old becomes new | Wedding rings from scrap gold
Today it was time again. The collection container for precious metal remnants and chips was filled with a good 1.3 kilos of various precious metals. In these collected shavings, which are produced during the production of Mokume Gane Wedding Rings, there are proportionally the materials processed by us, yellow gold, red gold, palladium, platinum and silver. For the recovery of the precious metals, by chemical separation, we commission a so-called refinery, which carries out these chemical processes for us under controlled adherence to the environmental regulations. Before leaving our company, we melt the precious metal waste into a solid ingot, which is then analysed by us for its contents.
The machined Mokume Gane material is brought to about 2000 degrees/celsius in a crucible by induction. With the addition of copper, which promotes the alloy, and with careful stirring of the melt, a very homogeneous ingot is created when the mould is poured out. Homogeneous refers here to the even distribution of the precious metals within the finished ingot. In this way, when measuring the fineness by the X-ray fluorescence method, reliable values are obtained which correspond to the entire ingot.
This melting, and especially the pouring of the 2000 degree hot metal, regularly proves to be nerve-racking, as the smallest mistake can lead to accidents with devastating consequences. However, to support the mutual trust between our workshop and the recycling company, this effort is appropriate and beneficial.