Inlaying 9ct yellow gold into sterling silver?

[DaveatWeirs]

I know it's very much not the ideal thing to inlay a harder metal into a softer one, but I've seen it done and I wanted to know if it's even possible with gold into sterling silver or if anyone has tried it.
I've been given free reign to do engraving and sculpting on a large sterling silver armada dish (aprox 18 inches across) and would like to include some inlay around the company name.

 

[John B.]

Dave,
May I ask why you want to use 9ct gold for this inlay work?

 

[silverchip]

Well that might just be a bad Idea. You can however overlay(braze) it on and still get the effect you are wanting which may be the better idea.

 

[Goldjockey]

Expanding on the brazing idea, if this is a purely decorative piece, cutting a channel for the inlay, laying in the gold and using a strong easy flowing low temp solder like Tix which flows at around 280 Fahrenheit to permanently affix the 9 Carat gold into the channel might work. This would eliminate the issue of fire scale, and if the fit is nice and tight the solder wouldn’t be visible. You could try the technique in brass, and copper to see if it works for you.

I would flow a little solder into the channel first (shouldn’t take much), apply flux, lay the gold (or whatever) into the channel and apply just enough heat to flow the solder.

Have used the technique with silver solder to inlay gold into silver, and see no reason why it wouldn’t work perfectly with a lower temp solder like Tix for a decorative piece.

 

[monk]

i have used the tix solder for a number of small projects usually pendants and such. the stuff never changes color. is very economical to use. www.micromark.com sells the stuff.

 

[Victorvile]

There is not much visible contrast of colour between sterling silver and 9K or even 14K.It should be at least18K.

 

[Sinterklaas]

I would avoid any solder containing lead. Because if, in the future, someone where to heat the piece to repair it with silver-solder or for other reasons. The lead will start to eat the gold away. This will happen if you overheat the lead containing solder. Maybe someone can laserweld 24K in to the inlay channel. Or maybe you can burnish the silver to keep the gold in place. Or you can try and selectively goldplate the piece. With pen plating.
If it is in a recessed area and if the dish is decoratively it should last sometime. But in the end the silver will tarnish and that will even show through the gold plating. Unless you do a special plating underneath.

 

[silverchip]

Since it is purely decorative, I might consider selective gold plating with a plating pen and skip the headache of getting near a torch.

 

[Chujybear]

There is not much visible contrast of colour between sterling silver and 9K or even 14K.It should be at least18K.

If you allot up a rose gold 9k should give plenty of contrast.

 

[DaveatWeirs]

Thanks a mill for all the feedback and sorry for the delay, it's been quiet for the past month and naturally when I start doing something fun the work picks back up with a vengeance.
In regards to soldering/heating it, unfortunately the dish has one of those god awful gold plated/covered resin things mounted in the middle which I can't remove which is why I was thinking of inlay.
As to why I was thinking of using 9ct it's purely just a matter of costs, I've been given free reign but I imagine if I start asking for lengths of 24ct gold it might be corralled a bit.
I was also just curious if it had even been done. It'd present some weird challenges and the approach would have to be different to inlaying, say, 24ct gold into steel and was curious to see what people have tried

 

[Goldjockey]

Thanks a mill for all the feedback and sorry for the delay, it's been quiet for the past month and naturally when I start doing something fun the work picks back up with a vengeance.
In regards to soldering/heating it, unfortunately the dish has one of those god awful gold plated/covered resin things mounted in the middle which I can't remove which is why I was thinking of inlay.
As to why I was thinking of using 9ct it's purely just a matter of costs, I've been given free reign but I imagine if I start asking for lengths of 24ct gold it might be corralled a bit.
I was also just curious if it had even been done. It'd present some weird challenges and the approach would have to be different to inlaying, say, 24ct gold into steel and was curious to see what people have tried

Given the limitations and challenges involved, I think I’d take a hard pass on this one. It just sounds black a hole in the making.

 

[DaveatWeirs]

Ya know what, you're 100% right. My curiosity got the better of me but it's definitely just asking for trouble