What can a 3mm 10k White Gold 4 Prong earring stud tell you?

You either have the right metal detector for micro jewelry detecting or you don't.

I hunt gold jewelry on land. It is my desired target. I focus on it to the near exclusion of all else. I hunt for hot spots and when I find them I prep them for efficient recovery of new losses. It is what I like to do. And I find pretty small jewelry. Too small to even take good pictures of with my current camera. So I thought I was doing pretty good. Maybe using the term 'Micro' was splitting hairs.

I had asked Tom Dankowski what to use for a Micro Jewelry test piece. He replied back that a 10k White Gold 4 or 6 prong stud earring capable of holding, what? a 1/4 or 1/2 caret stone would be a recommended test object. So I went searching for something and finally obtain something at the right price off of ebay; 3mm solid 10k white gold 4 prong stud earring. Silicone backing. So its just the earring stud itself with a topaz stone in it. Pretty tiny. Smaller than I thought it would be when I ordered it.

Ok. The Gold Bug Pro is a proven prospecting unit, and my G2+ is nothing more than a Gold Bug Pro on a different rod set up. I've seen the pictures of the small gold pickers it can find. So surely it will hit this earring no problem, Rght?

Well, I put the 5" DD on it, and start bench testing. All metal gets a hit on it out to about 1-1/2" if the prong end of the earring is facing it. Horizontal and Vertical orientation presentations are much less. In Disc, I can get a signal about an 1" away with the prong facing the coil and the other orientations are about 1/2" with mostly non-ferrous responses. That is at maxed out sensitivity. Wow. I thought it would be better than that.

I have a V3 with a 22kHz single frequency option with a hot gold program on it that will hit it good, too. Right?

Well I put the 4x6 DD on the V3, load up my hot little gold program and start my test. Hey, I'm getting something, thinking positive...better depth than the gold bug, oh...wait....its picking up my hand. So I transfer the earring stud to a ruler and try again. This time no response. Or at least no usable response. Did some tweaking to the program and still no thing. Wow. Got to try some programming changes and see if I can at least equal the G2.

Not done yet......what about the Omega 8500. No. Not a chance of every finding one these little earrings with that. Put it up.

Still not done yet....what about the F75LTD? Lets give it a try. I put the little football concentric on it, maxed it out and frequency shifted for stability and give it a try. WOW. In both JE and Boost mode it did better than the G2. The G2 audio wasn't that strong but the F75 audio was great in all orientations. And I was getting at least an 1" in the vertical and horizontal orientations and about a 1-1/3" with the prongs facing the coil. And it was giving mostly non-ferrous TID. This reminded me again of what a top notch detector the F75 is and will always be.

Wow. Just Wow. I ended up sitting there thinking about how much time I have wasted at some sites thinking that if 'any' gold was there I would have gotten it. I got over it a day or so later as reality set in and reminded me that hunting really small jewelry has its own little focus and that I need not worry about unless I'm specifically hunting for it. But that if I'm going to hunt for it I need to equipment myself for it.

And that is the back story to my pre-order of the Makro Gold Kruzer.

HH
Mike

MIke great testing.

I see a couple of problems with using a 10k White Gold stud as a test piece, please correct me if you think my logic is incorrect.

My wife and I buy estate jewelry at estate auctions (where a lot of it's sold below, or close to spot gold prices). One thing I've learned over the years is that typically low quality gold also has low quality stones. So sure you might get a 1/4 or 1/2 caret stone, but if it's diamonds, it'll typically be junk quality.

The other issue I'd see with using 10k white gold is being only 41.6% gold, what's it alloyed with? Usually nickel, perhaps silver, and they rhodium plate it to get that white gold appearance (else mixing yellow gold and silver colored metals, still gives a light grayish yellow appearance). If it's alloyed with silver, it should (in theory) be easier to detect then nickel.

The F75 LTD was a good machine for small gold, found my fair share of rings and what not with it. I found a gold chain with it once at the lake, and was amazed because chains are not an easy target for detectors. IIRC I was using 2-tone BP mode it was a nice signal. It was about 4" deep. It's been years since I got that, so I may be incorrect on my settings, but as I recall in other modes, it either produced no signal, or a signal that was so questionable one would likely pass it up.

It'll be interesting to see how your testing goes with the Gold Kruzer

Brian,
I think the reason Tom recommends the 10k white gold is that it represents the worst target scenario for the exact reasons you mentioned. If you can get good hits on this you can be sure you will get good hits on the better alloys.

Maybe Tom will step in and add to the conversation.

HH
Mike

Tom has a pet 10k crucifix. A sort of standard target. If I were designing a new beach or land detector, I’d borrow it.

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold

For your info a white gold engagement ring can easily come in at 7-8 while a yellow gold ring of same size might come in 16-17 so really using a tough target for sure
My feelings are one large yellow gold old college ring can me up for mucho gold earrings..

Dan-Pa. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For your info a white gold engagement ring can eas
> ily come in at 7-8 while a yellow gold ring of sam
> e size might come in 16-17 so really using a tough
> target for sure
> My feelings are one large yellow gold old college
> ring can me up for mucho gold earrings..


I think Tom addressed this disparity in his Beach and Swimming Hole Hunting Video. While the amount of gold value in these tiny earrings is very small, if you're hunting the right type of places your tiny gold earring may have a large valuable diamond or stone set in it. I guess the trick is finding the right kind of places to hunt to UP the possibility of a valuable stone setting.

Rich -

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Just one more good target before I go.

Mike, Rick & Rich: Correct!

For those looking for a earring mount, this may be useful.

ebay



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2018 01:36AM by Mike C.

Sure I understand chasing earrings for stones (doesn't make sense for the pitiful amount of gold), but you'll never get good ice in 9K, 10K, or 12K gold....lucky to get it in 14K gold these days

When you find a gold jewelry item... that is (specifically) made of 'white' gold.......... there is a stronger propensity of ...what ever the stone(s)........ being real.,.,.,.,.,., and of better quality. This data has been collected from several different jewelers.

NASA-Tom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When you find a gold jewelry item... that is (spec
> ifically) made of 'white' gold.......... there is
> a stronger propensity of ...what ever the stone(s)
> ........ being real.,.,.,.,.,., and of better qual
> ity. This data has been collected from several di
> fferent jewelers.


Perhaps, but not in 10K, nobody puts high quality gems stones in 10K or 12K. It would be akin to putting a Viper V10 in a Honda Civic, not saying it doesn't happen, but.....

It's often thought that 9ct / 10ct gold would be a harder, stronger metal than 18 ct etc, and hence would hold the stone more securely.
However the science data doesn't match the common assumption.
This page from a UK jeweller/pm dealer, Chard, goes into some detail. The exact alloy composition, and how it's worked, heat-treated, make for a variety of properties.
[24carat.co.uk]

It appears we are also talking about...... to dig or not to dig, value vs time. Lot of beach hunters have the same opinion...... if it goes thru the scoop let it go. Unlike you thou Mike..... in reality most of that stuff falling thru their scoop isnt worth chasing simply because in salt water its more than likely not gold. I think even the water hunters if they grab all that saved gold can tell you..... dry sand hunters or not..... they wont have but very few SMALL white gold items.... if any..... and id bet none of it would fall thru a scoop.

Many many times land hunting with the f-75 I have shaken my head in amazement, digging small feather weight metal pieces.

?QUESTION?........Is there in existence, a metal detector that can proper signal on a small linked gold chain (not bunched up, no pendant) at 9"+ deep in a wet salt sand beach???

Steve........ no.

Mike, your post brings other thoughts. Not intentionally hijacking your very interesting subject.

NASA Tom; Thanks, I didn't think so. Imagine all the lost gold chains on the thousands of miles of popular beaches.....tons.

Tom D. Remembering the experiment you did with the gold ring tied to the dental floss in the wet salt sand...blew my mind how deep it went in a short time period.


Another ?QUESTION?. Whats the sink rate of a gold ring verses a gold chain, no pendant ? Have you tested the comparison?

I would think it would be much slower because of the weight spread. Also, depending on the link size, the speed the descent.....along with many other obstructions.

One of the biggest problems metal detector Design Engineer's face today is: the wet-salt is highly conductive. Small gold jewelry is of nearly the exact same conductivity. Especially with single frequency units....... when you adjust the Grnd Balance to wet-salt..... over 99% of the gold jewelry that is lost in this world.... becomes undetectable. Gold-dead. A gold ring is a closed-loop of continuous continuity. This is about the only target that a single freq unit may still be able to detect in the wet-salt. Most gold jewelry hunters on the beaches..... are 'ring' hunters. . . . . . . . . . . because/by-default...... this is a moderately easy target to detect. . . . . . and is about the only thing that can be found. Hence; their jewelry display collections are filled with these closed-loop of continuous continuity items. (Rings). This (in a VERY major way)....... falsely leads a detectorist to believe: gold rings are a primary jewelry item that is lost...... which is completely incorrect.
If a gold chain has large enough closed-loops (links)..... it might be found.

A gold ring lays flat on the sand. This imposes a 'circular knife' contact area with the sand. All of the weight of the gold ring is on top of 'the circular knife'..... hence/subsequently...... pushing the knife into the ground.
A gold chain has plenty of filigree links to 'fill with sand'...... and also 'snag' the sand........,,,,,,,,, of which....... in both cases....... will decelerate the vertical sink-rate of the item. And filigree gold that can fill with sand particles..... then becomes nearly the same weight/density of the sand; subsequently, no longer wants to sink. Problem is....... our detectors can not detect filigree gold in a wet-salt environment.

Mmmmmm. Something with “M” comes to mind. How about a PI detector, operating at perhaps 8 micro seconds pulse delay? How would that do?

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold

Rick...... problem then comes with having to turn the delay down to operate in the salt. Most of the PIs now days run in the 15 Us range. Tom......... you mean this size of chain loops? Got this last month...... [metaldetectingforum.com]

Ill just say im amazed to see some of the gold stuff we just cant touch with the detectors we now use in the salt water. Some much larger than you expect.

The Manta prototypes are running smoothly - so I have heard - at under 8 micro sec in salt water.

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold

Rick..... im in that line...... they need to leak a little more info lol.

some woman is walking around with only 1 earing

Try the same test with a Tesoro Compadre & it may shock you !

Salt. Salt is the enemy. Single freq VLF Detectors ground balanced to salt are dead to small low carat gold. Compadre, with it’s fixed ground balance, is even more so.

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold

Esteban Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Try the same test with a Tesoro Compadre & it may
> shock you !

As the original question was a general one which included wet/dry beaches as well as inland,then i agree with that the Compadre although it just has the one control is very underrated as a 'micro jewellery' machine,i have one with the 4'' coil on and although it does not offer great depth and i 'only' use it inland then it does work its miracles on small gold,which was also a shock for me aswell.Of course the use of a Compadre with a small coil on does not only extend to inland use as it will also perform as good as on 'dry' sand just as good.

Of course for wet sand beaches when most folks assume that micro jewellery is lost then a more specialist detector would be far more productive.

Junk and Disorderly Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Esteban Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Try the same test with a Tesoro Compadre & it ma
> y
> > shock you !
>
> As the original question was a general one which i
> ncluded wet/dry beaches as well as inland,then i a
> gree with that the Compadre although it just has t
> he one control is very underrated as a 'micro jewe
> llery' machine,i have one with the 4'' coil on and
> although it does not offer great depth and i 'only
> ' use it inland then it does work its miracles on
> small gold,which was also a shock for me aswell.Of
> course the use of a Compadre with a small coil on
> does not only extend to inland use as it will also
> perform as good as on 'dry' sand just as good.
>
> Of course for wet sand beaches when most folks ass
> ume that micro jewellery is lost then a more speci
> alist detector would be far more productive.


Yes, I was referring to dry conditions.