Kraftwerks News

We have some news about Kraftwerks-Its going online April 11th! Rather than make everyone fly in in these difficult times we update and adapt. We have a new gadget on the blog that shows the countdown to Kraftwerks New Media -The Release!

An Opportunity Lingers

Right now, you can get 950Pd for about $13 per dwt or about $8.36 per gram. 14k nickel white gold goes for nearly DOUBLE that amount of money at $25 per dwt or about $16 per gram. Of course 950 palladium is a bit lighter so theres even more benefit to the switch. Dazzle your customers with beautiful jewelry at price point guaranteed to appeal these days!

Get it while the price is good

As I sit down this morning, Palladium is $237 per ounce. This means I can sell all the 950Palladium jewelry metals for $13.86 per dwt or about $278. That in itself is good news. But when you compare this to 14kt white gold?! 14kt for casting is $24.86 a dwt, or $497.20 an ounce. In fact 10kt is far more costly than palladium. 10kt is $17.61 a dwt or about $352 per ounce.

PAI web redesign and new blog

Hi
PAI has done it again. The new discussion board looks good, and is easy to use.
Plus I like the new forum

Palladium degas flux

We received the sample in mid September. It seems to drive out the gas to some extent, but unfortunately our sample had leaked in the mail. We have an order in for more for more complete testing. We hope to start getting the flux in by November.

The induction tests were more promising than the torch tests. But we will continue as the flux (hopefully) becomes available again.

Degassing Flux

I have heard from a chemist who may have a solution to the gas in palladium. He says he has a flux that degasses palladium. I intend to test a sample ASAP!

JA NYC

Daniel Ballard will speak about Palladium and more exotic precious metals at JA New York July 27th at the Javits center. He will include information and video on casting, assembly and design issues for exotic materials like mokume gane and more.

Did anyone but yours truly catch the "product placement" of palladium in Iron Man? Not as jewelry (darn it) but as a high tech metal that was removed from the missiles and re-cast for the Iron Man suit. Not bad for a new metal. I wonder if DJS (the palladium marketeers) had anything to do with that...

What about those alloys

It is being reported that some palladium rings are too brittle to size much. These reports coincide with Pd/Ru/Ge alloys that have been extruded. Beware platinum family alloys with palladium! They can be brittle. They are excellent for continuous cast like seamless bands, and they stamp really well.

But as we all know lost wax casting is different. Just like gold, the best fabrication alloys are not often the best casting alloys. To a lesser extent this is true of platinum. The traditional blend of 9o0%Pt and 10%Ir was the casting mix, and 95%Pt 5%Ru was the fabrication/stamping blend. It's no coincidence that Ru is the tricky one to cast overall.

The disclaimer here is that at least one caster, (TechForm){http://www.techformcasting.com/) swears by the Pd with Ru blend. Different casters use differing plasters and methods, so these are general rules that certainly have exceptions.

Palladium Panel at JCK Las Vegas

The MJSA Education dept. and Luxurypalladium.com put on one heck of a panel for palladium. The panel included one of my favorite jewelry designers Lisa Krikawa, two very good casters, Linus Drogs of Au Enterprises and Teresa Freye' of TechForm. An excellent metallurgist and executive at Hoover & Strong was there, Mr. Stewart Grice. MJSA was kind enouch to include yours truly as well.

The news is we got questioned about how to better work with Palladium rather than "what is this stuff like?" In other words, the market is maturing, becoming aware of the material and how to best make use of it.

Dance

Just a shot of one of our furnaces starting up.

Palladium Prices up

Well it looks like palladium is pressing up against $500 per troy ounce. Ouch! But not to worry, all the metals are up. Platinum is well over $2100! But even today 950 palladium costs less than 14k gold. Sales people at retail stores should suggest palladium to anyone looking for an affordable fine white jewelry option!

Plumb Pd Solder Breakthrough

You know when you to the refining or foundry side of alloy work, you get very appreciative of those who test and assist at the bench. That bench work sits at the heart of our industry along with casting, stones and the rest. When I made some of the very first solders designed for 950 Palladium I was unable to test them properly at a bench. After all I am no bench jeweler! So I relied on my bench working friends, my beta test" crew. But they are not accomplished photographers.

Kudos to Mark B Mann who graciously tests all kinds of palladium products. he tested our "Plumb Palladium Hard" solder with good results as pictured. To me its old news that we have a great solder. It may be real news to you, the reader but the bigger news is this product he found called "Firescoff". Palladium does oxidize with torch heat. Sometimes you have areas that you can not re-polish

Mark not only tested the solders but took some of the cleanest soldering pictures of the process you will ever see. That my folks is not easy! Please remember these images were all done by Mark. if you have more questions contact Mark as per below.

My sincere thanks to

Mark B. Mann

Mann Design Group, Inc.

www.manndesigngroup.com

mmann@manndesigngroup.com

406-961-4426

Palladium Emerges

Some folks gave palladium a cold reception. Look whats happening now-Palladium is emerging as the hot jewelry to own.

Soldering Palladium

A video demonstrating the easy to use PD-xe solder from PMWest. You can see the mild oxidation that occurs which we remove easily with a rouge wheel. Shot at Artistry Of Gold, in Los Angeles.