Karigar wastage and fine gold calculator
Work out the fine gold in a piece including wastage, or check how much gold a karigar lost compared with what you agreed.
Free, with no sign-up. It runs on your phone or computer, and nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Gross weight less stones and anything that is not gold.
In percent. 22 carat is 91.6, 18 carat is 75.
The extra percent added for loss in making. Agree it with the karigar or the buyer, it differs by design.
Per gram. Adds the value of the gold to the result.
Fine gold in all
24.900 g
Pure gold, with wastage
- Net weight
- 25.000 g
- Touch
- 91.6%
- Fine gold without wastage
- Net weight x touch
- 22.900 g
- Wastage, in fine gold
- 8% of the net weight
- 2.000 g
- Fine gold in all
- 24.900 g
Stop chasing gold on paper
Sarraf AI tracks every issue to a karigar and every return, in fine weight, and shows the loss against what was agreed.
Start 7-day free trialFine gold and wastage
Gold of different purity cannot be added up by weight alone. So workshops count in fine gold, the pure gold inside. Fine gold is the weight times the touch (purity) as a percent. Wastage is the extra percent added to the weight for loss in making.
Fine gold = net weight x (touch + wastage) / 100. For a 25 g piece at 91.6 touch and 8% wastage, that is 25 x 99.6 / 100 = 24.9 g of fine gold.
Checking a karigar's loss
Give the karigar fine gold, take back a finished piece, and compare. Work out the fine gold of what you gave (weight x touch) and of what came back (net weight x touch). The difference is the loss. Compare it with the loss you agreed to.
- Given: 100 g at 99.9 touch is 99.9 g of fine gold.
- Returned: a 105 g piece with 5 g of stones, at 96.5 touch, is 100 g net, which is 96.5 g of fine gold.
- Loss: 99.9 - 96.5 = 3.4 g. If you agreed to 1%, that is 0.999 g, so 2.401 g is beyond the agreement.
Tips
- Weigh before and after on the same scale, and write the weights and the touch on the slip.
- Check the touch of the returned piece, not only its weight.
- Agree the allowed loss in writing for each kind of work.
Questions people ask
What is fine gold?
Fine gold is the pure gold in a piece. A 10 gram piece of 22 carat gold (91.6% touch) holds 9.16 grams of fine gold. Counting in fine gold lets you compare gold of different purity fairly.
What is touch?
Touch is the purity of the gold as a percent. 24 carat is about 99.9, 22 carat is 91.6, 20 carat is 83.3 and 18 carat is 75.
What is wastage?
Wastage is the extra percent of gold added to a piece's weight to cover what is lost in making it, such as filing, polishing and melting. It is usually agreed between the shop and the karigar, or between the shop and the customer. It is separate from making charges, which pay for the labour.
How much wastage is normal?
It depends on the design, the metal and the karigar, so there is no single right figure. Plain pieces lose less than fine filigree work. Agree the figure in writing before the gold is issued.
Why compare in fine gold when checking a karigar?
A karigar may add alloy, so the returned piece can weigh more but be lower in purity. Comparing fine gold, which is weight x touch, shows whether any real gold went missing.
Does the loss check include stones?
Enter the weight of stones and anything else that is not gold in the "Stones and other weight" box. It is taken off before the fine gold is counted.
Will the numbers match my books?
The fine weight uses the same working as Sarraf AI: net weight x (touch + wastage) / 100. If your books work wastage differently, use the loss check, which does not depend on it.
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