Balance Scales
We got these scales as a prize from one of our club meetings and really never had any use for them until we decided to sell some of our gold rings on Ebay.
Particularly the ones that were more or less scrap.
We all find our share of those broken, deformed, stone missing rings and it was time for them to go since we needed some cash.
We made several lots according to the karat of the gold, 10k, 14k and 18k. We had to determine how much each lot weighed in grams so we used our cheap scales. Fortunately the little weights were in gram increments.
Anyway, to make a long story short we sold all the lots for a decent amount to the same bidder on Ebay. A few days later we received an e-mail from him stating that our numbers were way off, and not in his favor. Ouch! He also sent a pic of our gold on his digital scale with the correct weight displayed.
To keep the buyer happy we had to dig into our good rings that we didn't want to sell and send it over. We wound up sending him more since it was totally our fault. This was not a very good experience and the lesson was learned quick. Do not use cheap balance scales without double checking and triple checking their ability.
Digital Jewelry Scales
I wanted to get into casting my own rings and it was time to invest into some real digital scales I could trust. I had to mix my own alloy and you have to be very precise with the amounts needed to achieve the desired karat of gold. Surprisingly the digital scales are not that expensive ($60-$70). If you are planning on selling some your finds, that is a small price to pay!
There is big variety of different scales available on the market today, I didn't want to go with too small of a scale nor too big. After a little bit of shopping around I settled on a medium 250 gram digital scale. You can quickly measure your desired weight amount in grams, ounces, troy ounces and pennyweight (dwt)
I can't say I have been using these everyday, but it's nice to have them handy when you need them. I have to admit that I got out of casting rings as it was far more expensive hobby then metal detecting. I did however produced several rings that turned out OK.
The moral of the story is if you are going to sell some rings, don't make the mistake I did and either invest in good set of scales or ask a local jeweler to do it for ya.