Tell Me About White Gold!
Gold is yellow. There is no such thing as white gold. It simply doesn’t exist. When we talk about white gold what colour are we really describing? It certainly isn’t white like a sheet of paper is it. It is more of a silver colour!
Some people do not like the yellow colour of gold and they know that silver tarnishes so they don’t want that either. Well, there are alternatives nickel, platinum and palladium.
Platinum is the metal mainly used for high quality jewellery to get that bright silver colour. Why high quality? Because it is expensive, very, very expensive.
Just yesterday a lady asked me to repair her platinum engagement ring. The original solder join had split and she had lost a ruby accent stone. That ring had been worn everyday 24/7 for thirty six years. When I looked at it it did not have a mark on it, not a single visible scratch or any signs of wear. Now that ring in 18k gold would have had to have been remade perhaps twice in that period.
Platinum is a very hard metal and it polishes up with a mystifying high gloss look! Magnificent stuff! But it is simply too expensive.
In the 1920s white gold was invented. This is simply a mixture of other lighter coloured metals mixed with yellow gold. Nickel, platinum and palladium can be used. Nickel is toxic and is presently not used because it produces a rash on some skins.
So in simple terms white gold is a watered down version of gold with other bright silver looking metals mixed with it. Is there a problem with that? Yep!
That yellow gold base just wants to come through so the metal gets a tarnished yellow glow to it. Not really severe but just enough to spoil it.
Do we have a solution? Yep! We plate it with Rhodium! Holy smolley, so what we are doing is taking perfectly good gold, mixing with other metals (now it is called an alloy) and then plating it with another metal all for the sake of making it look a silver colour?
Yep, and it costs more and the plating will wear and will need to be done again in most cases!
Some people do not like the yellow colour of gold and they know that silver tarnishes so they don’t want that either. Well, there are alternatives nickel, platinum and palladium.
Platinum is the metal mainly used for high quality jewellery to get that bright silver colour. Why high quality? Because it is expensive, very, very expensive.
Just yesterday a lady asked me to repair her platinum engagement ring. The original solder join had split and she had lost a ruby accent stone. That ring had been worn everyday 24/7 for thirty six years. When I looked at it it did not have a mark on it, not a single visible scratch or any signs of wear. Now that ring in 18k gold would have had to have been remade perhaps twice in that period.
Platinum is a very hard metal and it polishes up with a mystifying high gloss look! Magnificent stuff! But it is simply too expensive.
In the 1920s white gold was invented. This is simply a mixture of other lighter coloured metals mixed with yellow gold. Nickel, platinum and palladium can be used. Nickel is toxic and is presently not used because it produces a rash on some skins.
So in simple terms white gold is a watered down version of gold with other bright silver looking metals mixed with it. Is there a problem with that? Yep!
That yellow gold base just wants to come through so the metal gets a tarnished yellow glow to it. Not really severe but just enough to spoil it.
Do we have a solution? Yep! We plate it with Rhodium! Holy smolley, so what we are doing is taking perfectly good gold, mixing with other metals (now it is called an alloy) and then plating it with another metal all for the sake of making it look a silver colour?
Yep, and it costs more and the plating will wear and will need to be done again in most cases!
posted by Gary Hocking at 4:54 PM
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