Wire Wrapped Jewelry

The most common questions we get on the subject of purchasing metal are the big ones.

1) What do I get?

2) Where do I get it.

The second one is answered quickly. I get my silver and gold filled from two places, Monsterslayer and Rio Grande:
Monsterslayer
Rio Grande
Get the wire coiled, but with Rio Grande, you sometimes have to specify Coiled or it comes on a tight spool.

Now, what do I get. Don’t use silver or gold plated, it won’t hold up to wear. If price is forcing you to look at silver plated, consider copper or brass instead. I only use Sterling Silver and Gold Filled. The specific Sterling Silver I use is Argentium Silver. It has the same silver content as traditional Sterling Silver (92.5%) but replaces some of the remaining components with Germanium. It greatly reduces tarnishing.

Gold Filled is a great product. Unlike gold plated, Gold Filled has a layer of gold bonded to brass and holds up well to wear. It comes in 10k, 12k and 14k, depending where you get it. Usually you see the product described a 1/20th, 14k Gold Filled. That means that 1/20th the weight of the metal is the gold component, the remainder being the brass core.

We use several sizes of metals. For most projects we use 21 Gauge Square wire, Half Hard. For tiny pieces we use 24 gauge. Where practical, we wrap the bundles in the same wire. We also wrap bundles in 16 or 18 gauge Half Round wire, also purchased Half Hard. Ring shanks get wrapped in 21 gauge Half Round wire.

For ornate projects we use Dead Soft wire, but it is hard to handle and easy to kink and twist. It is difficult to make a ring using Dead Soft wire.

The math on Gold Filled: Lets start with one Troy Ounce of 1/20th, 14k Gold Filled and ferret out the gold component.  A Troy Ounce is 31.1 grams. Since it is 1/20th, that takes the gold component down to 1.575 grams. Since 14k  gold is 58% gold that takes the weight of the gold down to 0.9135 grams, or 2.94% of a Troy Ounce. Today, (5-26-2009) gold is $959 a Troy Ounce which makes the gold component worth $28.17. Monsterslayer had one Troy Ounce of 1/20th, 14k Gold Filled 21 gauge square, today at $53.65 for small quantities.

Steve