Preciaous Metals
Choosing and understanding the right metal for your jewelry can be crucial. Which is the most durable? Which involves the most cleaning or maintenance? Which is shiniest? Not only should these questions be factors in your decision making, but you should consider the look and feel of the jewelry that you want to present to the world. Use our guide to discover which metal is the right one for you.
Gold Metals:
When choosing Gold there are a couple of factors to consider:
Gold is made of several different karats.
A karat is the gold content of the metal. It measures the content of pure gold mixed with other metal alloys to make up the metal. Gold in it’s purest form is 24Kt.
- 10KT Gold contains 41.7% pure gold ( 417 parts per thousand parts)
- 14KT Gold contains 58.5% pure gold ( 585 parts per thousand parts)
- 18KT Gold contains 75% pure gold ( 750 parts per thousand parts)
There are several different colors of Gold. The most popular is yellow gold, followed by white gold and rose gold.
Yellow Gold is made by mixing pure gold with alloy metals such as copper and zinc.
White Gold is an alloy of gold and some white metals such as silver and palladium.
Rose Gold is made using a mix of pure gold with alloys including copper, which gives the reddish color.
You can use a combination of gold in jewelry, which is called two toned, three toned or multi colored gold.
Silver:
Most jewelry is made from sterling, or standard, silver as opposed to fine silver. Sterling silver is made of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper, giving it a harder texture and a lower melting point, which makes the piece last longer.
Most sterling silver undergoes a process called “flashing”, in which it is plated in a thin coat of fine silver to give it a bright, shiny finish.
Britannia silver is an alternate form of silver which has a higher concentration of silver at 95.8%. Britannia silver is most commonly used to make table and flatware.
Platinum:
Platinum is a white metal and used in jewelry in almost it’s purest form, which is approximately 95% pure. This metal is very dense and heavy and is extremely long wearing.
Palladium:
Palladium is similar to platinum with a silver, grey, white color, and resides in the platinum family of metals due to the similar chemical properties of the two.
Tungsten:
Tungsten is a very hard , strong and durable metal and is highly scratch resistant. This metal has a permanent polish which means that it never has to be re-polished. Rings made of Tungsten can’t be cut or soldered, so if your buy one of these rings, it’s important to know your size since they can’t be resized
Rhodium:
Rhodium is a white metal very similar to Platinum. Since the natural color of gold will eventually wear through white gold jewelry, you should maintain your white gold jewelry by having it rhodium plated every 12 to 18 months.