White gold warning

Re: White gold warning

• teddygirl9 member

  

  November 2015

  14kt white gold is likely to be whiter than 18kt because it has less gold (under the rhodium). You can also have non plated gold. But yes, rhodium plated gold will require dipping around once a year. If you are rough on your rings you might need it sooner. If you don't mind the actual gold colour you can go longer.

  

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• CMGragain member

  

  November 2015

  Um, gold is naturally yellow.  If you want something that has a silver color, then platinum is a better choice.  OK, it's more expensive. 
  I do not understand people who think something gold ought to be white in color.
  

  

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• lembaslover member

  

  November 2015 edited November 2015

  Yup that is natural. As PP have mentioned gold is natural in color so to keep it looking silver requires maintenance. Honestly I don't think it's a big deal. I prefer the silver color and my now husband chose 18ct white gold for my engagement ring and we went with the matching wedding band. Sure Platinum would probably have been a better choice but he went with 18ct and it is lovely. Honestly I didn't even notice the "yellowing" until after we got married because you can see a slight difference if you look really closely at the two bands since I've been wearing the engagement ring over a year and just started wearing the wedding band. I'll probably just get them dipped in a year or so when I finally give in and get the soldered together.
  
  Maybe check out another jeweler if it's happening too fast because like I said I've been wearing my engagement ring over a year and it's pretty hard to see that it's yellowed.

  

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• banana468 member

  

  November 2015

  Remember that white gold isn't a natural thing.   It's an alloy of gold, a yellow metal and another silver-toned metal.   You also want to do your homework on the metal used as nickel can be the common metal used and many are allergic.   Better jewelers are now using palladium as the metal to alloy but you need to be aware.   
  
  The higher the K the more gold is in the metal.   18K white gold has more gold than 14K.   You will never find 24K white gold because 24K is pure gold.   
  
  Once the white gold is actually made into a piece of jewelry, it's often plated in rhodium, a metal in the platinum family.    So what you generally see when viewing a piece of white gold jewelry in the jewelry store is an item plated in rhodium.   How quickly that rhodium plating will wear off depends on the quality of the plating and you.   Your body's chemistry and how hard you are on your jewelry are the determining factors.   Some people don't need their rings replated frequently and others do.   Some jewelers do it for free if you purchased your ring in their establishment.    The white gold without the plating looks more yellow because the gold is yellow.   
  
  If you like the look of the rhodium plated white gold and don't want to worry about the replating, look into palladium as a platinum alternative.   You can't tell the difference, palladium has many of the same characteristics as platinum and more jewelers are using it.   You can then have jewelry that doesn't need replating and is of extremely high quality.

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