Metal Density Testing Method

[Phil2401]

Obviously i'm good at detecting iron, but still failing to see the irony.

[fred]

And asking a jeweller to in essence value something usually carries a charge. If you want a piece of paper saying what it is that's a valuation for insurance purposes and usually costs 10% of the value of the item valued. "I would like this sized but not sure what metal it is could you check it is gold for me before I commit" is disgusting behaviour and I wouldn't offer that as a solution.

I wouldn't suggest that either.

Be relatively honest like 'is this gold' and you will probably get an opinion and perhaps an offer based upon that opinion. Don't even mention insurance as valuations are usually fatally flawed anyway because they reflect the replacement cost not the value. That can easily be ten times higher than the value.

I would always try and get an acid test done rather than any of the other methods available, except of course I always do my own anyway. I am going to renew all my testing acids when I am at the PAS training day at the BM next week as it's quite close to Hatton Garden.

[Dave8472]

By the way, I have since tested this method on several hall marked gold items and it is surprisingly accurate. Probably not a definitive test if you selling something, but good enough for your own stuff and no damage to old items. My stator turned out to be about 9ct and I wouldn’t of wanted to scratch or paint any chemicals on that lol. Especially as it was worth a considerable amount of money when I sold it.

Dave

[Danzigman]

By the way, I have since tested this method on several hall marked gold items and it is surprisingly accurate. Probably not a definitive test if you selling something, but good enough for your own stuff and no damage to old items. My stator turned out to be about 9ct and I wouldn’t of wanted to scratch or paint any chemicals on that lol. Especially as it was worth a considerable amount of money when I sold it.

Dave

We (I) have translated the Testing method to Danish, and it is well know and recognized in detecting sociaty here in Denmark.. So good helping tool..

[Twit]

Have also tested several rings and found it accurate.

[Koala]

Have also tested several rings and found it accurate.

Depends a lot on what your testing

Ok on a solid plain gold ring. Just about everything else I have tried it failed quite badly.

Porosity, bubbles trapped within a casting and so on make a very big difference.

[Dom]

I remember vaguely something like this in science lessons but i think i must have been day dreaming out of the window at the time.

Thanks for this

[Twit]

Have also tested several rings and found it accurate.

Depends a lot on what your testing

Ok on a solid plain gold ring. Just about everything else I have tried it failed quite badly.

Porosity, bubbles trapped within a casting and so on make a very big difference.

Air bubbles give a reading that is lower (less gold), but if you use a very fine plastic line you can usually jiggle them off and then raise the object off the bottom without too much water being lifted out on the line.... obviously there are limits though as some objects are too complex for that. For most solid simple ojects it works fine.

Either way it is a first simple step to get an idea, and at the least, if done properly, if it reads gold then it likely is, and if it doesn't you can still check any other way.

[Fusion]

Thanks for replacing the pictures, Dave. I was getting ready to remake some myself, as I PM'd Barnet 6 months ago to ask him if he had the original pics and could sort out a new photo-host. But the message is still in my outbox.

[Dave8472]

Thanks for replacing the pictures, Dave. I was getting ready to remake some myself, as I PM'd Barnet 6 months ago to ask him if he had the original pics and could sort out a new photo-host. But the message is still in my outbox.

Steve not logged in for a long time, I did find a possible contact route via his clubs contact details. Luckily the photobucket issue is linked to third party hosting rather than there being a problem with the original images. I managed to copy the web url code for the images and view them there and copy the images back in to the thread and hosting them on the forums server

Dave

[Beachcomber]

Fantastic!
Thank you for this- greatly appreciated.

[rayz555]

Brilliant learnt that at school but you forget these things if not needed