Friday, December 4, 2009

How to Determine The Purity of Gold


It is always good to have some knowledge of purity of gold if you are a gold buyer or seller. In this article, you will be told how to determine the purity of gold. After reading this article, you will be able to determine whether gold is pure or not. Just follow these easy steps and you will get the result. You will need a touchstone, testing solution and gold test needles to do it. So here we go!

Step 1 Check for identification marks:
Look at the gold item for some identification marks like 10k, 14k, 18k and 24k. Test needle and test solution will vary according to carats. If you identify carats, you will have the best results.

Step 2 Touchstone and test needle:
Pick up the test needle and touchstone. I you want to test an 18k gold item, you will choose 18k test needle too.

Step 3 Scratch the touchstone with test needle:
It should be a firm scratch. It should not be across the entire surface as you will need to buy another touchstone if it is. Just a firm scratch it should be.

Step 4 Scratch the touchstone with gold item:
Make another scratch next to that one you made before with needle. But this time you will make the scratch with to gold item you want to test. So you have two scratches located side-by-side on the surface of touchstone.

Step 5 Acid solution:
Use the acid solution of 18k if your test needle is of 18k. Use that of 24k for a 24k test needle. Drop 1-2 drops of the solution on the scratches you made before.

Step 6 Analysis of result:
Finally, analyze you results. The color of the two scratches will be the same if your gold is pure. If the colors do not match, then repeat the process with different needles and solutions.
By mbastudent

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