United News
Welcome!
We welcome you to this edition of United News.
We wish you a successful and prosperous 2012. This past year has been interesting, indeed. Looking forward, business consolidations, markets and even politics will bring us an equally challenging and eventful 2012.
Please browse our newsletter for cost saving hints that may be able to be applied to your products, processes and systems. As always, if you read anything in this edition, or hear of anything else out there that you may need some clarification on, we are here to help.
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Thank you,

Vinny Guadagna
President and CEO |
In this issue of United News …
We often get requests from customers for a yellower, redder, whiter or greener color for bi-color or tri-color jewelry. The usual problem is a lack of color contrast in
the jewelry. On investigation, the items they are trying to make usually have a high luster finish on the whole finished piece. What the eye sees is reflected light
when looking at the high polished surface; this washes out any color contrast in the finished item. Using a different alloy will not solve the color contrast problem.
The only way to solve the color contrast problem is to vary the surface finish on the multicolor gold jewelry item. You can use a high luster finish on one part and a
matte, brushed or sandblast finish on the second or third part of a different color. The texture variation will break up the reflected light and optimize the color contrast.
A diamond cut is sometimes used on larger areas of the matt surfaces to add a little sparkle to these areas.
An excellent example of the use of surface texture to enhance color variation is in "Black Hills" gold jewelry. The gold jewelry is usually tri-color and the use of
textured finishes is exclusively used to achieve optimum color contrast.
We often get requests to refine silver plated tableware. We don't
refine silver plated tableware as the costs of refining exceed the value of the silver recovered. It is best not to mix silver plated items in with your sterling silver scrap
submitted, as it will dilute the value of the silver contained in your scrap and lower your return. Silver plated items in good condition can often be sold online or at flea
markets, complete sets or unusual pieces are quite saleable.
We have run across a number of what appear to be circulated old US silver dollars. These coins are silver plated base metal and strongly magnetic. Before you purchase any
old US silver dollars, check the coins with a magnet to ensure that the coins you have are not of this fake variety. If the coins are strongly magnetic, then you may have a fraud.
It will save you a lot of money and grief to be on alert for these coins. Other large silver coins such as old Mexican Pesos should also be checked with a magnet before acquiring.
We at United have a variety of timely products available to help in your manufacturing and repair industry challenges.
- Casting Grains – We at United have a variety of ready to use grain for both casting and fabrication applications. Our Fine Gold and Fine Silver used to manufacture our grain is 100% recycled and is environmentally friendly.
- Karat Sterling™ - Suitable for casting, Karat Sterling™ is a high tarnish resistant gold based sterling silver ready to use grain. Similar in appearance to white gold, the alloy offers high fluidity for casting filigree or stone-in-place designs, tarnish-resistance, and no firescale. Due to the alloy's improved whiteness, jewelry manufactured with this alloy exhibits a high surface luster.
- Pink Metals – We continue to get numerous requests for Pink Metals, for which we at United have many metals available in Pink. Specifically, we have our 534 Pink
Master Alloy which can overcome the typical Pink Alloy cracking issues.