Digg Feeder

There is a popular misconception that platinum and white gold are both lustrous cold white metals. Wedding bands made from either of these metals do look white and do look great. Which is best? Let’s look at each one.

White gold – one of the most popular metals around these days when it comes to jewelry. Sorry to burst any balloons, but white gold is not a pure gold. Gold, in its purest form, is yellow and very soft – too soft to use in most jewelry pieces.

Pure gold is mixed with other metals to form a harder alloy that is then suitable for jewelry making. When measuring gold content, 24 carat equals 100% pure gold. Common alloys include 22 carat, 18 carat, 14 carat and 9 carat. As an example, white gold that has 50% gold content is 12 carat.

A white gold alloy could contain quantities of silver, palladium, zinc, copper or nickel. These metals also help to harden the white gold for jewelry use. By combining yellow gold with these metals the yellow color is bleached white, hence the formation of white gold. White gold is much harder than yellow gold because of this combination of metals.

White gold that is rated as 18 carat will have a yellow gold content of 75% with the remaining 25% any combination of metals – the more palladium the harder the finished alloy is. The resulting white gold looks very much like platinum, is long wearing like platinum, yet much cheaper than platinum. Cheaper versions of white gold are being produced these days and they range in color from dull grey through to a sickly yellow.

Platinum: this metal is much rarer than gold so it is far more expensive. Platinum is a fairly hard metal and while it can be worked into rings in its pure state, can also be alloyed for easier use. Like white gold, platinum has various grades of purity and is actually a light grey in color – not white.

To get the brilliant white finish that white gold and platinum are famous for, they need to be plated with rhodium. Over time, this rhodium plating will wear away leaving the base metal behind. As the rhodium plating wears away the brilliant white finish that platinum and white gold are famous for will be replaced by a dull light grey appearance. Platinum wedding bands also turn a light grey or off white color.

Platinum is more expensive than white gold, however they may both look quite cheap over time because of that rhodium plating. You can restore the white lustre to your jewelry by having the rhodium plating reapplied. Which is best? It is in the eye of the beholder. Many don’t realize that white gold was created to imitate platinum. White gold is no longer considered a platinum substitute, it is popular in its own right. If you are looking for a platinum finish on a budget, be wary – you will get what you pay for. If you really want the platinum look – get platinum.

For those wanting white gold, be sure to buy white gold that is good quality, not created from a cheap alloy blend. I like white gold, not because it looks like platinum, but because it looks like white gold.

For more information on jewelry white gold, visit our site at jewelrywhitegold.net. There you will information on how to buy quality white gold jewelry from as little as $1.