By
Ashley Bailey, Wednesday, August 02, 2006 12:00 AM
If you shop for jewelry in a typical jewelry store, you'd think there are only two standard finishes for gold: shiny or dull. In actuality, there are nearly a dozen that manufacturers regularly use.
You owe it to yourself to investigate them all. Here's a list of popular gold finishes:
- Bark. Using an etching tool called a burr, the goldsmith makes wavy lines in the surface of the gold that resemble tree bark.
- Facet. Using a lathe, a goldsmith dots the surface with a honeycomb of dents that resemble tiny gem facets.
- Florentine. This is an ancient textured finished that involves etching gold etched with parallel diagonal lines, then crosshatching each at 90º.>
- Granulation. One of the oldest known gold finishes, granulation involves affixing minute grains of gold to a base of gold or another metal without solder.
- High Polish. This is the most popular gold finish, usually achieved through buffing that imparts a bright, shiny, mirror-like surface.
- Matte. Those who like gold with a more frosted, grainy appearance might look into this finish created by sandblasting.
- Satin. By using sandpaper, a goldsmith can give gold a soft, lustrous pearly look.
For more specific questions ask our experts
