I'm enquiring about foundry/casting courses in the UK on behalf of my father. He want to learn to cast gold/silver rings. I've seen book recommendations but he thinks it would be best to either learn from a course or from someone willing to show him. If there are no courses available then what is the recommended method of learning the trade? He has a casting machine but I can't see him practising with real gold!
Thankyou
Dan
There are those that teach the skill, but he should turn towards the jewelry industry, which is apparently his field of interest, anyway. Practicing with gold is a non-issue (assuming you can afford it) so long as it is not lost. It can be melted a few times without degradation, although it tends to start forming inclusions from gasses as the base metals oxidize more and more with each melt. At that point refining would be in order to remove the oxidized base metals. The pure gold would then be re-alloyed to the desired color and Karat fineness.
Harold
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