A Test For Gold........

[Kevin Taylor]

...............is there a simple way to test an item to see if it's really made of gold?

Thanks K.T.
1973 911 E 2.4 MFI
1983 911 SC
1978 911 SC
1965 Devin "D" / 1967 912 Power Plant
1998 GMC Serra 4X4 Z71
John Deere LT166
Money Can Buy Happiness........Buy A Porsche......a

[silverc4s]

WRONG ANSWER -Duuuh

[M.D. Holloway]

Use a Multimeter - conductivity will tell if it is plated, an acid test will tell you if it is solid.

[M.D. Holloway]

joke from our Son:

Silver says to Gold, "AU"

Gold says to Silver, "Hi back at you..."

[silverc4s]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupellation

[Hugh R]

A real jewelry maker has an electronic device, a really, really sensitive ohm meter that can tell you the purity as a quick non-assay test.

[Dixie]

Easy... Give it to a woman. See what happens.

[cstreit]

Do a search on the internet for a photograph of someone with it embedded in their teeth or hangin off chain?

Seriously though, check custom jewelers, they have the right device as I think someone mentioned.

[Aurel]

If you can sell it for ~$860/oz, it is probably gold .

aurel

[on2wheels52]

I have bottles of acid(?) marked for 10, 14,18,& 22kt gold.
Lets say you have a piece of solid 18kt. The 10 & 14 bottles will react with the gold, the 18 won't.
This is assuming the sample is of a uniform mixture. If it's a pounded together glob it would need to be melted down.
Jim

[many944s]

Check here:
http://www.ishor.com/contents.htm

They used to sell an electrolytic "pen" that had a felt tip that was impregnated with a salt solution. Off the back end of the pen was a thin wire. (they used to be sold on Ebay all the time)

To use it, you simply held the wire to the bottom of the metal you are testing, then run the pen tip over the top surface of the questionable metal. Next draw a line with the pen tip on a white piece of paper. It will leave different colored lines for different purities of various metals (Platinum, palladium, gold, etc) I think I still have one around here, I will see if I can find it and post a pic.

Hope it helps,
Nick