How to properly test gold using acids to ensure the item is not gold plated or gold filled. I teach people all around the world how to test precious metals and start their own business, visit www.mattwallace... for more info.
0:00 🔍 Ensuring items are not gold-plated is crucial when testing for gold authenticity. 0:50 🛠 To test gold-plated items, ensure the acid reaches the base metal beneath the plating for accurate results. 2:56 📝 Look for inconsistencies like marked charms without marked pendants, which may indicate plated items. 4:20 🧪 Start testing with 14-karat acid, as it provides a strong reaction without risking damage to genuine items. 6:50 ⚠ Avoid using 18 or 22-karat acid, as they can cause false positives due to their potency when testing for plated items.
Hi Matt, thank you for your videos! I heard of Chinese companies plating 18K gold onto tungsten or other metals in thick 20 microns or even 30 microns. With most gold plated jewelry having just 2-5 microns of gold layer, what those Chinese companies offer seems to be much thicker. Does this mean that such items are much harder to be detected with scratch and acid tests or will thorough scratching take off even 20 or 30 microns of gold plating? All this given the person testing the jewelry is not filing into it or even cutting through it. Would be great to get your opinion on this. Thanks!
I just got an 1100 dollar refund thanks to you on four different items that passed the scratch test but where soundly defeated by simply applying the acid to the piece itself. THANKS!!!!
Great video. I bought a necklace and is stamped 18k very beautiful but wondering if it was plated, real or fake. I hate to ruin it then I can't sell it. Open for suggestions
If you are using 14K acid and you were testing something you believed was 14K and the line faded to reddish brown or brown but didn't dissolve this would indicate that the item you tested is probably 10K not 14K. Hope that helps!
I'm on a budget and I have some gold filled pieces that I've had for over fifteen years that still look great- that being said, I'd like to get a couple more. I've yet to find a way (searching the web with the limited knowledge I have) to test something and determine plating vs. Filled. Is there a way, beyond markings? Your reply is much appreciated!
Hello, I'm looking to purchase some gold filled jewelry, would you by chance be interested in selling? If not do you know where a good place is that I could buy
Hi, thanks for the video, my family owns a watch shop, and I was actually fooled once by a customer who sold me his gold wrapped watch bracelet (pretending to be solid gold), it was so thick that it was impossible to test on the inside of the actual solid links, and as it turned out it was stainless steel with copper and a very thick gold wrapped, it was sold to me as SOLID gold. What to do on these cases? thank you!
+Joshua Taylor anytime you have an item that weighs a lot you need to be extra careful. As for detecting gold plated stainless, you can file a small notch in the piece. Stainless is so much harder than the precious metals we test you will instantly notice it is a lot harder to file, and this should tip you off to something is wrong. When doing a scratch test stainless wont dissolve even with 22K acid, the line that scratches on the stone will be white even though it might be gold plated as the plating is usually pretty thin and the scratch test goes right through it. I have never heard of a piece of stainless having a very thick actual gold layer over it and would say that is definitely rare, most of the time the tactics I listed will prevent you from buying stainless as gold.
Matt Wallace Thanks a lot for the through answer! This actually happened when I was unexperienced and new on my dad's business. So I learnt my lesson =)
You speak more about gold-plated items in this video, rather that gold-filled, unless I missed it, can you address gold-filled? Also whatis the tube of acid are you using? • GOLD LAYERED is primarily an electrical process (eletro-plating). 1st a piece of base metal, normally brass, is submerged in a plating solution and then an electric current is passed thru the solution & the item being plated. There are many different solutions depending on the amount and color of the gold to be plated and some are full of corrosive and dangerous acids. This process moves single atoms of gold out of the solution and onto the items being plated. The gold plating is even and very thin over the entire object. Depending on the certain factors, this coating can be worn away quickly or last quite a while. In this case, karat weight may not mean much in durability.
The stone is custom made by my friend I will ask him what the cost is he made it for a gift not to resell. The 14K will smoke but you have to use it the 10K is not powerful enough to make gold filled smoke or turn green.
Is the watched marked 10k, 14k, or 18K? If it is not then its probably an old gold plated watch. These watches had a fairly thick layer of gold over brass and so would hold up to an initial acid test but once the acid gets inside the watch case where is the gold was thinner or non existent you will get the bubbling reaction as you would if you tested brass.
The only brand I recommend is the Gemoro Auracle Version 2 or 3, its under 500. It uses a salt water pen that does not need to be refrigerated. A lot of the other testers require some kind of gel tube that only last 6 months and once opened it needs to be refrigerated, something they don't discuss much before you buy. These machines can test gold plating but old item that have heavy layer of gold can fool the machine. If you are looking at buying an old item and its not an item you will resell I take a file and make a deep notch and just put 14k acid directly in the file notch. If it bubbles green/bluish its plated, if not color or bubbling but turns groove brown its 10K, if no reaction its 14K or better.
when i test a piece that isnt marked i put 14k acid on it and dissapears. and wen i put 10 k it doesnt disapear but kind of floats to top. and another piece did kind of same thing but didnt float it just kind of dulled it a little can you help me out matt?
If your test dulls to a brownish color with 14k acid but it stays with 10k then the piece would be 10k. If the scratch mark completely disappears with 14k it's either lower than 10k like 8k or 9k or its fake. It's hard to say what's going on with the pieces floating sometimes with a rough stone it scrapes off too big of pieces that end up floating, a hardened glass test stone is much smoother and I hear of this problem less when people use them.
If it is lightly plated then it almost always can detect it. If it is an antique rolled gold item the layer of gold can be thick enough to throw the machine off, but if the item looks "new" (less than 30 years) it should be able to detect it.
Can you answer if a good gold filled necklace can be worn out in how much time, means how many months or years? Plz reply as I'm about to be married nd I need to know
There is no way to know exactly how long it will last. I will say if it’s new it’s probably not that thick of plating and won’t last as long. 100 years ago they definitely put more gold in filled items. But should last years not months.
I filed into my “ gold “ chain , 14 k acid bubbled green , 10 k stayed the same . For the scratch test , 14 k acid made the line disappear , with the 10 k acid test the line stayed the same . Does this confirm the chain is “ fake “ and falsely marked 14 k Italy ? 🤔😬😳🤪🤯 thank you so much
If it bubbled green then I am 90% sure its fake, the only reason I am not 100% is because I have seen enough weird things over the years that without seeing it in person I don't want to say for sure. If it were 10K the 14K acid should just turn it brown but NOT bubble and turn green.
Matt Wallace Thank you so much for responding and getting back to me so quickly!!! I really appreciate it . And thank you for your very helpful videos , I am so blessed to subscribe . There is so much to learn , and i find it so interesting and fun . Blessings always !!! Thanks again, roni
At this point no, he stopped making them but I am trying to get them back as the gold price is getting higher there is more interest again. I do know he was buying a 12 inch tile from a tile store and kind of "sanding" it down to make it rougher and thats what he was using but what type of tile I have no idea.
If it has 18k and italy stamped on the clasp part does that guarantee it is real? if not what type of question should one ask when trying to purchasing a gold item?
No, if it is a style chain incapable for a proper stamping, it may be under the clasp, or snipped off in manufacturing, but in no way does the clasp stamp indicate anything but the clasp is what it says, and even the stamp can be a lie. You can never be sure unless you bought the gold from a reputable jeweler first hand, without testing it. Any pawn shop would test it for you if you do not mind some cosmetic damage required for the testing, like if you wanted to scrap it.
Gold filled has a value around $1-1.25 a gram at todays price. If someone is willing to buy it from you they usually only pay half that as you have to save up a lot of gold filled before you can process it.
hi have an issue you can probably help with gold ring no marks passes very hard scratch test with 10k however when I apply 14k acid directly on ring I get a slight green which means copper normally however the base metal is gold color as well bad acid? 8-9 k or just fake ? thanks
If the base metal is brass it would also be yellow, generally if its brass the 10k and 14k acid would dissolve the line on your test stone. Being that it turns green when you put 14K directly on it my assumption would be thats its fake, there is a slightly chance it could be 8k reacting to the acid but this would only apply if the piece is extremely old like over 100 years as in the 1800s we used lower karat gold and it can react weird with the acid. Hope that helps
hi what if you are testing for 18k, and the line fades to some point BUT not completely after waiting for 30 seconds or more? is it still consider 18k? i noticed for 22k testing on a 18k piece, it completely disappear within 10 seconds..but with 18k solution, it takes up to 30-40 seconds to fade to some extend but not completely. please advise. thanks
If it doesn't completely dissolve its 18K or close to it like 17K. Generally we are looking to see the reaction after 5-10 seconds, if you leave it on a long time it will start to dissolve it some. From what you described I think your item is 18K.
Most likely it is bad acid, it only has a shelf life of about a year. Also 10k won't dissolve with 14k acid just turn dark brown or discolor the line but not fully dissolve it. If this is the case then the acid is not bad, it's working properly. If however the acid looks like a drop of water and has had no effect on the 10k gold scratch then the acid is bad.
