Thanks, yes, it's a big risk to do it by yourself, my family's getting a pretty good deal on this though, I could get away with charging a lot of money for gold rings but since they're family and have been paying for all of my education etc. they just have to pay for materials.
One thing to bear in mind with the gold, it's really hard and has a higher melting temperature, the toughness was surprising, you do have to get used to it and how hard you have to hit it just to get the damn metal to bend.
oh really? even at 18k it is harder than silver? i guess the precious metal content is still quite low in comparison to say sterling silver, as gold is super soft!
I may have to get some oval silver wire and make some simple band rings as its a really nice effect, i never really noticed in lord of the rings i just assumed it was half round wire
I have no idea what they mix in with it but at least from the supplier we bought the gold off it was definitely harder than silver yes, even at 18ct. We sent it off to the assay office though and they didn't crush it or anything so we at least know it's the correct purity.