Do you melt gold??

[Elegance_1]

I'm wondering about taking scrap gold and melting it down into small chunks or whatever.

I've not been able to find any info online about the process. What I did find was extraction processing to remove impurities. Seems like the chemicals for the average layman are restricted here in the U.S.A. Is extraction really necessary? Won't melting the gold/silver seperate out the impurities?

Does anyone here melt their own gold and even silver alloy?

[Art of Hand]

Hi Barbara,
unless you have 22 or 24K gold, it is not pure. Like Sterling silver, it will contain silver and I think copper too? the extraction chemicals is highly toxic, and is done in controlled extraction units (here in South Africa, anyway at our local refinary)

If you want to melt the gold that you have, be aware of that purity issues. So for instance, your 9K will be the gold with the highest content of other metals in it.

I have melted a gold ring, and actually got a tiny little ingot of 18K in a box somewhere. I melted it on a carbon block. The carbon increases the heat (reflective), and helps to melt the metal faster. Otherwise you can use a crucible. But with a carbon block, you can melt little pellets with a hot head. Oh, and work with a reduction flame ...