Repurpose Your Old Gold To Make New Jewelry - 4 Easy Steps

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In a previous blog, I posted about Where To Sell Your Finds such as gold, but have you ever thought about making something new out of something old? Perhaps out of repurposed gold?

Repurposing is a huge trend these days and can be a great option to even save some money.  Many people often think of repurposing old furniture or even clothes to help bring them back to life.  But what about your old or found gold?  Why not repurpose your old gold in order to help make a new piece of jewelry for yourself or for that special someone?  

In this edition of Metal Detecting Life, I’ll take you through 4 steps of how you can repurpose your old gold and turn it in to a new, stunning jewelry heirloom.

1. Decide What Gold To Repurpose

Various gold rings and jewelry I found from metal detecting that I decided to repurpose.

The first and perhaps the most difficult step in repurposing your old gold is to decide what pieces you should recycle.  This is because many of these pieces are most likely still holding some type of sentimental value to you. 

Whether it was the first piece of gold you found metal detecting or it was a birthday gift from an old ex in college, parting ways with that gold can be difficult for some. My advice, if you haven’t worn it in over a year or you have had it tucked away in a box, hidden in a drawer that never sees the light of day, then it may be time to part ways and give it new life.

2. Send It To A Refinery To Melt Down

Photo Credit: Jason Leung - Unsplash

Once you’ve figured out what gold you’re willing to part ways with so that you can repurpose it in to something amazing and new, you can send it to a refinery all at once in order to get it melted down together. 

I would recommend using a refinery because the majority of gold is not 100% pure (24kt) and it will be very difficult for a local goldsmith to work with gold that has impurities as they begin to craft your new piece(s).  Using a refinery such as ARA Gold or Midwest Refineries may be the best option to help you getting your gold refined so that it is ready to be made in to something new once they return it to you.

ARA Gold & Midwest Refinery

ARA Gold or Midwest Refineries can be used to send in your old gold and they do have an option where they will pay you a percentage of it’s scrap value, but you’ll want to check the option on the submission shipping form to have your gold sent back as bullion, rounds, or metal return.  

.999 gold returned from ARA refinery.

This will let them know you simply wish to have your gold melted down and they will ship it back to you as pure (.999) 24kt gold. 

If you’re old gold pieces have stones or jewels in them, the refineries do offer a free stone removal service and will ship those back to you along with your gold. Just be sure to mark that request on the form as well.

3. Find A Custom Jeweler

Craft-Revival Jewelers in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Finding a custom jeweler (hopefully local) is an important process because they will be the ones to help you through the repurposing process and will make sure your new piece of jewelry will be a special keepsake that you or your loved one will cherish for years to come.  Your jeweler should review any ideas, inspiration, and preferences in style to help ensure your new piece is exactly what you had hoped for by repurposing your old gold.  

Renderings as a new ring begins to take shape.

Once your jeweler has reviewed a concept with you, they should be able to take you through the next steps of making a sketch, computer rendering,  and wax mold so you can begin to physically envision your new gold jewelry piece take shape. 

Doing this will help make you feel comfortable and allow your jeweler to make changes if something doesn’t come out quite how you imagined it.  As they say, “back to the drawing board.”

Once you have your design finalized and your jeweler agrees, you can give your old, refined gold to them so that they can begin to melt and cast your brand new piece.  Some jewelers may even allow you to watch (just ask them) this process as well to really enhance the experience of watching the transformation take place.

Craft-Revival Jewelers is a family owned and operated business by the father and son team of Brandon and Jayson Case.

My jeweler, Craft-Revival, is a local, family run business that makes custom jewelry pieces for all occasions and is where I had my wife and I’s rings made.  They involved me throughout the entire process of having my gold repurposed in to these meaningful rings and seeing that transformation and being apart of the experience made our rings that much more special.  They even gave us a beer and a glass of wine during the big reveal to help celebrate!  And that’s why you go local my friends.

4. Give & Enjoy!!

Now, for perhaps, the best part of the entire journey of repurposing your old gold in to a new piece of jewelry - giving it to someone special!

The old gold I found buried under this very beach is now repurposed in to a new, 18k engagement ring for this lucky girl!

I was able to have the gold I found from metal detecting over the past few years melted down from ARA Gold’s refinery and shipped back to me as pure gold rounds. 

From there, I took that gold to my jeweler and went through the process of designing and creating a special heirloom engagement ring and wedding ring set with him. 

He used the pure gold that used to be my old gold rings found from metal detecting and he was able to melt them down and turn them in to these beautifully hand-crafted, 18k, new gold rings.

Needless to say, that lucky lady in my life said “yes” and it’s been happily ever after since!  Even if she is wearing “old, used gold” on her finger… because it’s new to her! And yes, she knows…

Summary

Repurposing your old gold, no matter where you get it from, and turning it in to something new is a fantastic way to bring new life in to your jewelry and help create a special moment in someone’s life that will be worth even more than its weight in gold.  Not only do you come away with a gorgeous piece of new jewelry, but you will also come away with an amazing story having gone through the process of having your old gold repurposed in to something new.  

The story of repurposing your gold will also make you feel great because you’ll have saved some money along the way as you won’t be paying for the price of purchasing “new” gold from a store. 

Also, by repurposing your old gold and having it made in to a custom piece, you’ll have a one-of-a-kind heirloom that you or your loved one will cherish, knowing that it wasn’t something massed produced by the “big-box” retailers and any “Joe” on the street could have an identical piece. 

I encourage you to look through your old jewelry that perhaps you don’t wear anymore or very seldom and then try to imagine of something new that you’d like it to become so that that old gold can become something new to you again.

Giveaway

*Not a subscriber yet? Join by entering your email at the bottom of the page!

I want to thank my Treasure Box subscribers for following along and diggin’ my various content both within’ the blog as well as on social media. 

Just like the topic of this article, I’m deciding to repurpose some of my “old gold” and held a random drawing to give it away to a lucky Treasure Box subscriber. 

Recently, I had been panning pay dirt from Alaska that I found at a local garage sale last year.  I’ve only done two small sampling pans from the pay dirt so far and the results were awesome, not to mention a lot of fun learning how to pan!

Congratulations to the Treasure Box subscriber and winner - Sporter5043!  I hope you enjoy panning for the rest of this gold and who knows, maybe you’ll find enough to repurpose it in to something new!

*I may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article.