Question
What is White Gold?
Answer
Pure gold in its natural form has a glowing, yellow color. It is also quite bendable, which makes it unsuitable for most jewelry. Therefore, gold has to be mixed with other metals to make it more durable. Pure gold is considered 24k. When 24k is mixed with 10 part of other alloys, such as silver, it is considered 14k. (14 parts gold plus 10 parts alloys equals 24 parts total.). To make white gold, a jeweler may mix other white metal alloys with the gold, such as palladium and nickel. When cast, the metal will still appear dingy yellow. The jeweler must then electro-plate the jewelry with rhodium. This is a white metal in the platinum family. The final result is a piece of jewelry that gleams white.
Depending on the use of the jewelry, the outer coating of rhodium may eventually wear off, but the piece of jewelry can always be re-rhodiumed to its full bright white luster. Some people call this re-dipping.
Because nickel is usually the culprit for any possible allergic reactions, Gallery of Diamonds does not use nickel in any of its jewelry.
Wishing you a brilliant day!
Diamond Mike Watson
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Do you have a jewelry-related question for Diamond Mike? Let us know here, or by emailing info@galleryofdiamonds.com.
Can you be more specific about the content of your article? After reading it, I still have some doubts. Hope you can help me.
Thank you for the explanation. I white gold less valuable that yellow gold?