NationStates Jolt Archive

We are about to buy our class rings at our school and one of the metal options, one of which was white gold. So I decided to do some research on white gold because I had heard of it before and wasn't absolutely sure of what it is.
What I found was that it is an alloy of gold with a silver metal such as silver, palladium, or nickle. But what threw me for a loop was that white gold's natural color isn't lustrous enough--its naturally light grey. So they coat it with rhodium, one of the most lustrous precious metals although too brittle to make jewelry with. My question is why is there gold in it at all? The rhodium coating ends up wearing off anyways and most metals that are alloyed with gold, with the exception of platinum, are less valuable than gold. I don't think that many of the properties of gold are beneficial to the jewelry, the coating wears off quickly anyways so the durability is null anyways. It has to be re-coated often. So why?

It looks pretty.

We are about to buy our class rings at our school and one of the metal options, one of which was white gold. So I decided to do some research on white gold because I had heard of it before and wasn't absolutely sure of what it is.
What I found was that it is an alloy of gold with a silver metal such as silver, palladium, or nickle. But what threw me for a loop was that white gold's natural color isn't lustrous enough--its naturally light grey. So they coat it with rhodium, one of the most lustrous precious metals although too brittle to make jewelry with. My question is why is there gold in it at all? The rhodium coating ends up wearing off anyways and most metals that are alloyed with gold, with the exception of platinum, are less valuable than gold. I don't think that many of the properties of gold are beneficial to the jewelry, the coating wears off quickly anyways so the durability is null anyways. It has to be re-coated often. So why?

Surely there's natural white gold as well as this substance? I seem to recall there being white gold mines in North Wales.

We are about to buy our class rings at our school and one of the metal options, one of which was white gold. So I decided to do some research on white gold because I had heard of it before and wasn't absolutely sure of what it is.
What I found was that it is an alloy of gold with a silver metal such as silver, palladium, or nickle. But what threw me for a loop was that white gold's natural color isn't lustrous enough--its naturally light grey. So they coat it with rhodium, one of the most lustrous precious metals although too brittle to make jewelry with. My question is why is there gold in it at all? The rhodium coating ends up wearing off anyways and most metals that are alloyed with gold, with the exception of platinum, are less valuable than gold. I don't think that many of the properties of gold are beneficial to the jewelry, the coating wears off quickly anyways so the durability is null anyways. It has to be re-coated often. So why?

simple,cos nobody would buy a rhodimu coated silver/palladium/nickel ring.well maybe silver

Surely there's natural white gold as well as this substance? I seem to recall there being white gold mines in North Wales.
Thats called electrum now.

Surely there's natural white gold as well as this substance? I seem to recall there being white gold mines in North Wales.
Nope. If it's pure gold it's always going to look the same. Different samples of the same pure element will be identical in terms of density, reactivity, color, etc.

If the gold's white it's mixed with something.

i got white gold for my high school ring. im also getting white gold for my college ring. i like the look of silver, so white gold is perfect for me... :)

Palladium and platinum are the alloy metals that are more expensive than gold, and make it more durable, as far as I know. Gold as itself is a very soft metal, and usually you need a third of copper to make it usable at all. Using palladium or platinum instead preserves the value, but adds durability. But, you're right, there's no point if you want the gold color instead of just expensive jewelry.

The golden color of gold itself is physically interesting, because classically speaking, the electronic structure of the gold atom would predict a silvery color. But, the high nuclear mass makes the electrons move faster, and there Einstein's special relativity steps in: faster means heavier. The heavier electrons mean different energy levels, which we see as a different color, which happens to be golden. The same effect is seen in copper. Silver has the electron shell in question filled with electrons, so it's silvery and doesn't much interfere with light.

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/gold_color.html

Nope. If it's pure gold it's always going to look the same. Different samples of the same pure element will be identical in terms of density, reactivity, color, etc.

You mean like how coal and diamond (both pure carbon) have the same density, reactivity, color, etc?

You mean like how coal and diamond (both pure carbon) have the same density, reactivity, color, etc?
D'oh! Sorry didn't think about that.

its a fashion statement

the ring isnt made of pure rhodium because as you said, its too brittle to use in rings. its over gold because gold wont tarnish or turn your finger green.

i like my gold jewelry to be yellow.

Electrum. Because a lot of people think yellow gold is tacky.

most yellow gold sold in stores is either 10k or 14k
both of these have high amounts of other elements
this is what gives the jewelry it's strength

you start to refine the gold when you get into the
18k or 24k(there is no such thing as 22k)
but it is easy to break and looks kinda gawdy

white gold is simply regular yellow gold covered
with rhodium...of course, if you wear the piece a lot
you will usually have to have it re-plated over and over

but truth is even platinum is plated with rhodium as well
it's the only way to go white
when heated it turns yellow or rose depending on the
other elements

titanium is new but it is the toughtest, looks white, and
is not plated
yeah, and it's really light to carry

People like to say they have something made of white gold. Otherwise all rings would be made of simple shiny plastic.

"class rings" :confused:

"class rings" :confused:


yah, you wear them for awhile cos they cost so much
later you pawn them for pennies cos they mean so little

yah, you wear them for awhile cos they cost so much
later you pawn them for pennies cos they mean so little

Or you give them to your girlfriend at the time to wear on a chain around her neck and she doesn't give it back when you break up....

Here are some white gold knowledge nuggets:

White gold also will effectively ward you from lycanthropic attack, which is a bonus. My class got regular gold class rings, then 3/4 of us were slain and/or turned into werewolves during a class trip to the Scottish highlands in '82. Could have been simply avoided had we gone with the White Gold, but we were cheap, young, and some of us became eventually quite hairy and quite dogmatic. Err, actually, I think I mean 'canine', not 'dogmatic' - I refuse to look dogmatic up though - onward, march!

Wielding white gold can also be fun if your name is "Tom Covenant" and you're a leper. Or so Mr. Donaldson's books claimed, anyway.

I'm out of nuggets - GL on that decision!

~FLG

People like to say they have something made of white gold. Otherwise all rings would be made of simple shiny plastic.
But I like shiny plastic, or as Jostens calls it, White Lustrium(tm).

We are about to buy our class rings at our school and one of the metal options, one of which was white gold. So I decided to do some research on white gold because I had heard of it before and wasn't absolutely sure of what it is.
What I found was that it is an alloy of gold with a silver metal such as silver, palladium, or nickle. But what threw me for a loop was that white gold's natural color isn't lustrous enough--its naturally light grey. So they coat it with rhodium, one of the most lustrous precious metals although too brittle to make jewelry with. My question is why is there gold in it at all? The rhodium coating ends up wearing off anyways and most metals that are alloyed with gold, with the exception of platinum, are less valuable than gold. I don't think that many of the properties of gold are beneficial to the jewelry, the coating wears off quickly anyways so the durability is null anyways. It has to be re-coated often. So why?
I think it's mostly because it costs about the same as gold, but lots of people don't really like the gold colour.


And also, someone was talking about how all metals will be the same colour if they're the same metal, which isn't entirely true, take copper. One type of copper 2+, I think, rusts blue, while 1+ rusts green (I may have got them mixed up) but then I'm not the most informed regarding chemistry, so I could be wrong.

Or you give them to your girlfriend at the time to wear on a chain around her neck and she doesn't give it back when you break up....
Hahaha. That was the only time I ever had a class ring in my posession. It was my ex's. I think I gave it back long before we broke up though. Either that or I lost it...

I always thought platinum was white gold?

:confused:

I always thought platinum was white gold?

:confused:
Platinum is an entirely different element.

If you have a periodic table handy, just take a look. Gold is Au and I believe platinum is Pt.

It looks pretty.

damned skippy

I don't like to wear gold...it just doesn't look good on me I don't think...so white gold allows me to own a metal that is worth a similar amount to gold, but still look silvery, and, hence the silveryness, good on me

Platinum is an entirely different element.

If you have a periodic table handy, just take a look. Gold is Au and I believe platinum is Pt.


yep-yep-yep

So what's in rose gold then?

Never bought a class ring. I never had that much pride in high school.

Anyway, to the question at hand, some people like the luster and appearance of silver, but are allergic to silver.

Take my wedding band, for example. My wife is allergic to silver, but we both prefer its look to that of gold. So, our wedding bands are white gold.

I dislike gold, perfer silver.

What I would want, would be an alloy of lots of random coloured metals, but made so that it was different colours (slightly) all around, so it was trippy.

Well, my mom and stepdad have wedding rings of white gold because they wanted their rings to look like the One Ring.

Then again, they don't wear them anymore because they've both taken up activities that cause their rings to rub and give them blisters. They're thinking of getting tattoo rings now.

Personally, having seen their rings enough in my lifetime, I think white gold is very pretty - it's slightly more gold than regular silver metals, but it's not that glaring yellow color that pure gold is.

I'm allergic to the alloyed elements in yellow gold (ie: copper, etc.) So, I cannot wear gold unless it's alloyed with nickel, etc.

I really like white gold. It's the only "gold" i can wear.

Platinum is an entirely different element.

If you have a periodic table handy, just take a look. Gold is Au and I believe platinum is Pt.

I knew that :p Thanx anyway.

But I've always heard people refer to platinum as "white gold"?

Is this just my experience?

White gold also doesn't tarnish like silver, does it? Since gold doesn't tarnish. That's why I prefer white gold to silver especially for earrings.

I knew that :p Thanx anyway.

But I've always heard people refer to platinum as "white gold"?

Is this just my experience?


Platinum costs more and is a shinier silver color than white gold.

Err.. well I thought it was more shinier, but looking at these pictures I can't see the difference in some of the white gold and platinums. But maybe thats because I'm not looking at it in person. http://www.heartsmith.com/pd_gold_wht.html

http://www.dyjewels.com/je_whitegold.shtml - talks about the differences in WG and Platinum, for jewelry.

Platinum costs more and is a shinier silver color than white gold.

Err.. well I thought it was more shinier, but looking at these pictures I can't see the difference in some of the white gold and platinums. But maybe thats because I'm not looking at it in person. http://www.heartsmith.com/pd_gold_wht.html

http://www.dyjewels.com/je_whitegold.shtml - talks about the differences in WG and Platinum, for jewelry.

Thanks thats really helpful. I do feel pretty dumb now though :headbang:

"class rings" :confused:
Yeah, can someone explain what "Class Rings" are, who buys them, what for, etc. please?

Also, if you want something shiny and grey, why not just use polished aluminium? Or stainless steel? It's cheap, plentiful, shiny... What more could you want?

White gold is not electrum.

Electrum is a naturally occuring and therefore variable alloy of gold and silver, which was used to produce the earliest Ancient Greek coins.
The mine where the alloy was found are now clean and empty and the colour is this: http://www-cm.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/coins/east-west/images/Ancient_01_obv.gif
All other silver-gold alloys that are now called electrum must be found on other places, but I don't know if the mix of the two metals are the same as in the greek electrum.

Palladium on the other hand is a poisonous metal, causing skin burns and liver damage but I suppose that it is safe to wear in an alloy.
http://www.vanderkrogt.net/elements/images/witzke/Palladium-Nishni_Tagil_Russia.JPG
http://www.lenntech.com/Periodic-chart-elements/Pd-en.9.jpg

Rhodium is hard and brittle. Mostly used as coating in jewellery.
http://www.chemsoc.org/viselements/pages/data/graphic/rh_data.jpg
http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/media/element-pics/Rh.jpg

Platinum is used instead of white gold, is amost always coated with rhodium in jewellery.
Hydrogen and oxygen gas mixtures explode in the presence of platinum wire. Fun huh?
http://www.vanderkrogt.net/elements/images/witzke/Platinum-Konder_Russia.JPG

So I would say, choose Titanium instead, better for the body.
http://www.engagement-rings-guide.com/images/titanium%20ring.jpg

Yeah, I like metals and chemistry...

And Naturality, the reason they look alike is because they are both coated with rhodium.

At the turn of the 20th century, a relatively unknown metal called platinum was being combined with diamonds by some jewelers. However, platinum was very expensive. White gold alloys were developed in the 1920s as a less expensive alternative to platinum. To meet the growing demand, several different alloys based on gold-nickel-palladium, in different combinations, became commercially available. During World War II, the use of platinum and nickel for non-war related applications was prohibited. As a result, palladium-based white gold alloys became the only choice for consumers in the U.S. In addition to higher costs, white gold jewelry based on palladium alloys are denser and heavier than nickel-based alloys. They are also not as white in color. After the war, lower cost nickel-based white gold quickly once again became the dominant choice of the jewelry industry worldwide

Wikipedia says so. It's apparently just a cheap variant of platinum, that's why it exists. Which would explain why the two look so similar :D

funny this post is up. Just went shopping here in Morocco for gold. Here they use only 18k so the wife wanted to buy. Egypt for example sells 24k regularly for anyone travelling there. Anyway they sell white, red and yellow. The yellow here is worth more than the other two. Belief here is that the yellow is pure whilst the others are not. Now im no expert on this subject so i dont know. Also looking at the price of gold per gram on the exchanges is a good indicator for what you should buy at§ For example the exchanges are 24k pricing. Would one deduct 25% for 18k to get the right price§ Can anyone can answer this question§


Apoligise for any grammar errors, using a arabic keyboard here.

to fool schmucks.

i got a white gold wedding ring because i thought it was cool.
according to http://www.gold.org/jewellery/technology/alloys/
white gold is 37.5% gold and 62.5% silver so i mostly got a silver ring.

i thought it was cool because of Thomas Covenant. i don't mind much though as it only cost me 15 quid.

fAnyway they sell white, red and yellow. The yellow here is worth more than the other two. Belief here is that the yellow is pure whilst the others are not. ... Can anyone can answer this question

yep,
http://www.gold.org/jewellery/technology/alloys/
which says that the all gold is yellow, and you change the colour by adding other metals, mostly copper and silver

Platinum costs more and is a shinier silver color than white gold.

Err.. well I thought it was more shinier, but looking at these pictures I can't see the difference in some of the white gold and platinums. But maybe thats because I'm not looking at it in person. http://www.heartsmith.com/pd_gold_wht.html

http://www.dyjewels.com/je_whitegold.shtml - talks about the differences in WG and Platinum, for jewelry.
The platinum pieces seem to have more depth to them to me.

You mean like how coal and diamond (both pure carbon) have the same density, reactivity, color, etc?Carbon isn't a metal- we can make a one-word substitution to make it work.

Besides, I think blue diamonds (little corundum impurity, maybe some hard to spell room-temperature gasses) are prettier than pure carbon ones.

What is the point of gold at all? Or diamonds? I honestly can't tell the difference between real and fake...and a lot of people (just looking at something) can't either. Why bother? I think it looks tacky, regardless. Silver is nicer.

What is the point of gold at all? Or diamonds? I honestly can't tell the difference between real and fake...and a lot of people (just looking at something) can't either. Why bother? I think it looks tacky, regardless. Silver is nicer.

They're both useful in the industry and in medicine... Jewellery should never be worn unless it makes one feel good about oneself.
So, wear what makes you feel nice and pampered.

You mean like how coal and diamond (both pure carbon) have the same density, reactivity, color, etc?
Im pretty sure you can only get gold atoms to bond with themselves in one way, whereas the same does not hold true for carbon.

They're both useful in the industry and in medicine... Jewellery should never be worn unless it makes one feel good about oneself.
So, wear what makes you feel nice and pampered.
Flannel.

I don't think that many of the properties of gold are beneficial to the jewelry, the coating wears off quickly anyways so the durability is null anyways. It has to be re-coated often. So why?

i prefer silver, myself, but i have a few pieces of jewelry made with white gold, and they have never required any re-coating.

and i'd think twice about spending a bunch of money on a class ring. are you really going to wear it in the future? college or university, maybe, but high school? who wears their high school ring once they are out of school a couple of years? (okay, i'm sure there are a few)

The only jewelry I own is a pair of plain simple small white gold hoop earrings and a blue star sapphire white gold ring.. and I found that... Nice ring, has the look of a claw going around the sapphire. Haven't seen another like it.

[QUOTE=Compulsive Depression]Yeah, can someone explain what "Class Rings" are, who buys them, what for, etc. please?
[QUOTE]

http://www.jostens.com/

they are usually hideously ugly pieces of jewelry, sold to graduating students, so they can look back on them and think fondly of the worst years of their lives,until they end up in a jewelry box or valet to be ignored for many many years.