Harold and Susan Vordos wrote:

"Todd Rich" wrote in message
(snip)
Admittedly, I'm pulling from wikipedia as a fast source, but it says
gold's density is 19.3, and tungsten's is 19.25.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten

And I have a platinum wedding ring, so I do have some experience with how
it feels. Though nowhere near as much as you do with your refining
experience.

I stand corrected! I have long labored with the idea that tungsten's
specific gravity was in the vicinity of 17.1. A quick check of Machinery's
Handbook, page 1706, 15th edition, provides a range of 18.6/19.1, very
slightly less than the specific gravity of gold. I would attribute the
slight difference to the fact that it is not melted, although there may be
processes that fuses the material. Slight variations in density are
likely due to the degree of fusion. Dunno! :-)

Makes sense to me. I've been reading up on the density of Osmium and
Iridium, and which one is denser depends on how they measure it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmium

What's funny is I've machined tungsten enough to have a general idea----yet
never made the connection with its density and that of gold.

Harold

Well, I was thinking that if you were going to try and fool somebody with
'fake' gold, plating a bar of tungsten would be a much better choice than
lead. It would be too hard though. Maybe if you were dealing with a
large enough unit to make it worth it, give it a 1/16" thick surface coat.

Don't mind me...idle thoughts...