Pure precious metals are very soft. Because of this, jewelry is often made out of alloyed precious metals. The alloyed metal can be used in a very thin state. It is used for reducing weight, to stabilize the metal and saving money.


In our goldsmith-courses tp-gold.com we just use very high alloyed and valuable gold and silver alloys. That´s much more easier for beginners.

Example: 8 kt (333) gold is often very brittle, breaks easily and it´s very hard to smith. Also it´s very red, so beginners shouldnt work with it.

Alloying is just mixing metals!

You can find more information in tutorial No 2!

Gold-alloys

The mixing-ratio of copper and silver can be very different. The more copper is used, the more the alloy gets colored red-gold. For beginners it´s easier to work with yellow gold.

White gold is a very raw and dull shining metal, which get its typical chrome shine by a galvanic cover of rhodium.

White gold should just be alloyed by professionals.

Silver-alloys

There are some more relatively unimportant silver alloys, for example 800 silver which is used for cutlery. There´s also a 935 silver, which can be used in the same way as 925 silver.