How To Anneal Gold

[David]

This is my first tutorial. I have been annealing gold alot latey so I figured I’d start here.
Annealing makes the gold soft for easy work. Here's what you do:

Step 1. Take your gold piece and make sure it clean. Put it in an ultrasonic, scrub it, steam it.
Step 2. Turn the lights down or off. You do not want alot fo light.
Step 3. Put the gold on fireproof surface.
Step 4. Light your torch with a larger softer flame and hold the torch a few inches from the gold. Not too close. Warm the gold slowly. Make sure to move the flame over all the gold.
Step 5. Watch for the gold to change color. You want it to be a dull red.
Step 6. When the gold is a dull red use tweezers and put it in water. Sometimes it will bubble or steam.
Step 7. Clean it again and remove any burn marks or residue.
Step 8. The gold should be soft now. You can bend it or roll it or draw it for wire.

Practice make perfect. Don't rush. Take your time.

[rjt]

this is a good thing to make young apprentice work. Every jeweler shoul d start with annealing, sizing, jump rings, drawing wire, makng ring stock, chains, end tabs, earrings posts, polishing, plating, clearning the entire shope and clearning all the machines. I probably forgot somethings.