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Daily Wire Tip Sept. 6: What’s Gold Filled Wire?

By on September 5, 2010
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Daily Wire Jewelry Making Tip for
September 6, 2010

Question:

What is “gold filled” wire?

-Trudy in Webster, Texas

Answer:

When I am asked how to describe gold-filled wire, my response is: picture a sword and its sheathe. The sheathe is the karat gold, and the sword is the pure jeweler’s brass. The two are fused together with heat so that the gold will not crack off, or easily wear off.

For a technical explanation I went to our Glossary of Jewelry Terms, where gold-filled is described:

Gold-filled (GF): A gold alloy plate made by soldering, brazing, welding or other means that is not less than 10kt fineness, where the plating constitutes at least 1/20 of the weight of the metal in the entire article. The term must be preceded by the karat fineness of the plating, such as 14kt Gold Filled. When using the term “gold overlay,” manufacturers are permitted to use a layer of gold that is less than 1/20 the weight of the entire piece, but they must stamp the proportion of the gold layer on the jewelry.

Answer contributed by Dale “Cougar” Armstrong

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7 Comments

  1. avatar

    Denise Hill

    September 6, 2010 at 11:21 am

    This is more of a tip; when doing wire weaving, use rubber earring backs to hold beads on your wire and it also helps to hold your wires apart, so you don’t pull them together to tight.

    I’ve used them also when making earrings, when your wire is not very long to hold a bead in place.

  2. avatar

    Jenn

    September 6, 2010 at 11:41 am

    Kind of a misnomer really, considering its not FILLED with gold, but gold plated. -headscratch-

    • avatar

      dalecgr

      September 7, 2010 at 8:40 am

      Jenn, I agree however we are not the ones who named it thus.

  3. avatar

    Adrien

    September 6, 2010 at 4:02 pm

    I have struggled numerous times to help customers understand clearly what gold filled means. Most of them equate gold filled to plated despite telling them about the obvious differences.
    I like your picture of the sword and sheath. Have you any”pictures” that would describe the relative thickness of gold in golf filled wire compared to the thickness of gold plate.

  4. avatar

    Debbie

    September 6, 2010 at 8:28 pm

    Is an overlay the same thing as plated? I wondered if they have to stamp (or are SUPPOSED to stamp) the amount of gold used for that purpose…

  5. avatar

    Lady Mockingbird

    September 7, 2010 at 5:35 pm

    A long time ago the term was gold filled with X (brass, copper, sterling). Because we humans tend to abbreviate phrases, common usage formed the habit of dropping off the end of the phrase, leaving us with the term “Gold Filled,” which is confusing in a world where a jelly filled donut has the jelly on the inside, not the outside.

    If we were in the habit of saying it is a powder donut filled with raspberry jelly, then Gold Filled would make more sense.