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Old 06-09-2006, 05:41 PM
RedRiver RedRiver is offline
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Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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Default Re: Professional Gold Color

I'm sure its probably a dye. One could achieve a near gold plate look. I would think that the best charactersitics to do so would be the 6061T6 aluminum polished a mirrior finish. Of course you would skip the etching step on the anodizing line and because its 6061T6 you could skip the desmut step as well. Anodize at a low current density and dye with one of Clariant's gold dyes (probably "Fast Gold" or "Gold S") or US Specialty Color's dyes ("Fast Gold LN"). It may also be a blend of dyes. I know when using the old Clariant AluPrint silk screening dyes if you blended 14% Yellow, 3% Red and 83% Reducer you could almost fool a jewler into believing it was gold plated (from a short distance of course).

The key is a good polished finish and the right choice of dye. But then again, I may be way off base here. As I stated above, without seeing your sample hands-on, it is difficult to tell...

I've been wrong before and will be wrong again...

My $0.02.
- Dan
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