F75 and Small Jewelry Test - Slightly Frustrated

[lloyd0161]

I am not sure if EMI is the culprit here or if perhaps there is something wrong with the F75. I have tested the F75 on a small gold hoop earring of my wife's. In jewelry mode this earring is not picked up at all with the iron disc set to 15. If I lower the iron disc to say 6 the earring is picked up but registers as iron around ID=11 and is detected out to around 4" and is a faint signal. I had to also lower the sensitivity to say 40 while in jewelry mode or else there is a lot of chatter and the VID jumps around a lot all over the scale. This earring is 14k gold, around 1/2" diameter, hollow, and is not costume/plated stuff. I know it is real gold as I bought these earrings from a reputable dealer for my wife's birthday. I would think this should register in the foil range on the F75 if anything. The F75 will not touch this earring in default mode. By comparison, my Teknetics G2 will pick up this earring with no problem with the ID=40ish and out to approximately 6 inches or so. Also I can run the gain to 100% on the G2. The F75 has no problems with larger jewelry which ID in the foil/nickel/pulltab ranges.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

 

[Smudge]

The smaller the gold, the more difficult time most detectors will have picking it up, even a high end one like an F75. Multi-frequency machines like the E-Trac or the Explorer by Minelab have the same problem.

If you want to find a detector that hits well on small to micro-sized gold jewelry, I feel you have to commit yourself to a gold prospecting detector. They are geared to finding those low conductivity targets like gold earrings, studs, and pencil thin gold chains. The G2 is a good detector for this kind of work, though I would recommend getting the 5x10 coil for it as its depth on small gold jewelry tends to be better than the standard 11" coil.

But you must also understand that the higher frequency and senstivity comes at a price. Because gold jewlery covers a wide spectrum on the conductivity scale, you will also be commiting to digging a large amount of non-ferrous trash like bits of aluminum and tin, which your G2 will find in abundance. I'm not joking. I mean a lot of it!

For many hobbyists, that level of senstivity is more than they can or want to handle and after awhile they get incredibly frustrated. If you think you would find yourself in that category, then stick with the F75. It is a great machine with impressive depth. You will lose some small and virtually all micro-jewelry out there, but most detectorists are in the same boat you are. You will still hit on old coins and decent sized jewlery like no one's business!

So you have to decide: are you a jewlery hunter who finds an occassional old coin? If so, stick with the G2. Or are you a coin hunter who will happily find an occassional piece of gold jewlery? If that's you, keep the F75.

There is no detector made that does both equally well. I know I may have just ignited a firestorm by saying this, but so be it. I believe an honest, unemotional review of the facts will support what I have just told you.

Best of luck to you out there and happy hunting!

 

[WV62]

One thing you may want to check on the F75, if you run the disc up from 0 to 7 you will notice that iron disc stops at 7 and foil starts at 8. So you ear ring came in in the foil level, pretty much as I would expect.

Ron in WV