Jewelry White Gold’s History
Pure gold is so soft that it is not practical for jewelry making so it needs to be mixed with other minerals. One of the most popular mixes around is the one that results in white gold.
For jewelry purposes, yellow gold is mixed, or alloyed with other metals. Pure gold is 24 carat and rarely used for jewelry. Once you create an alloy the purity drops so with gold, you end up with common alloys of 9 carat, 12 carat, 18 carat and 22 carat gold. Twelve carat, for example, is 50% gold with the remainder a range of metals.
These metals include copper, nickel, silver, zinc, and palladium. The metals nickel, zinc or palladium are used to turn yellow gold into jewelry white gold. These metals bleach the gold to a whitish color. Palladium has the most effect, however it is more expensive than gold – it is also creates a much harder alloy – often too hard to easily work into fine jewelry.
By using different combination’s of those metals you can control the strength and whiteness of the finished product. Rings for example need to be strong and most people who prefer jewelry white gold like the platinum look. To achieve this palladium and silver are often used, sometimes with other metals.
A ring may contain 75% gold, 4% silver, 4% copper and 17% palladium. This would result in an 18 carat jewelry white gold that is hard wearing and very platinum looking.
Why the platinum look? Jewelry white gold was introduced in the 1920’s to fill the void left by increasingly expensive platinum jewelry. Since platinum is far more expensive than gold, consumers wanted an alternative and silver didn’t fit the bill. Jewelry white gold looked and felt like platinum and was much less expensive.
Cheaper versions of jewelry white gold are being produced these days and they range in color from dull grey through to a sickly yellow. To give life to this cheap white gold, the finished product is rhodium plated. This turns the sickly looking metal into a highly polished platinum looking product.
Unfortunately, over time the rhodium starts to wear off and the true color of the cheap white gold shows through. This can make a fantastic piece of jewelry look cheap and junky within days. The process of wearing can take four or five years, but when it happens it happens quickly.
Like platinum, Jewelry white gold is a greyish color when created. Rhodium plating gives it that luscious white finish. Today’s quality alloys of white gold are more suited to jewelry making than platinum as it is easier to work with. Platinum is not an easy metal to bend with simple jewelers tools unlike jewelry white gold which has the flexibility of soft pure gold yet the strength of platinum.
Jewelry white gold is popular amongst trendy young professionals. It provides all the richness of platinum at a much lower cost. For a rich experience in fine gold jewelry – consider quality jewelry white gold.
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Posted on Aug 26 2009 in Fashion