Yeah -- gold-filled clasps are machine-made by definition. I found that out last week, and suddenly it all made sense.
I could find a jillion lovely examples in silver (which Mom doesn't
>wear), or gold plated (which sucks, because of the base metal
>underneath) or vermeil (the gold wears off silver instead of base
>metal.) Finally, I ended up with a lovely vermeil (which still
>wasn't easy to find, but better than nothing) and gave it a spray of
>lacquer for extra durability. Mom is incredibly careful with her
>things, so I probably will never need to do do anything else to that
>clasp, but if I did, I'd simply have it replated in gold.
>
>But why? Whines the girl who wanted something to bridge the gap
>between $3 Wal-mart clasps and $1,500 gold and diamond clasps. How
>come we don't have gold filled clasps in good styles?
>
>And the answer is: Because as a composite metal, put together like a
>sandwich, gold filled cannot be cast. A lot of the lovely items we
>drool over in toggles and so forth are cast, and wouldn't work in the
>gold filled format.
~~ Sooz