Is 18k White Good more tinted then 14K White Gold?

[craighnt]

I was just wondering, assuming you dont get your white gold ring plated with rhodium, are both those rings the same color? In theory, they add other metals to make it look white. So the more yellow gold you have I would think the less white it could be. Just wondering because I like the look of white gold or platinum, and I keep reading how 14K is not really fine jewelery. But I know its stronger. Anyone here have an 18K white gold ring?

 

[dk168]

Found this thread on PS via Google:

https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/unplated-white-gold.183102/

DK

 

[chrono]

When rhodium plated, they look equally white. Once the plating wears away, it will depend on the alloys used.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Not true that 14k white is harder than 18k white. I don't have the time to go find the quote, but a respected appraiser said it years ago. It is true of yellow gold, though. I would only use 18k or platinum for any fine jewelry. 14k is only slightly over half gold.

 

[EvangelineG]

Hmmm...I think my ring is taking offense at not being called "fine jewelry".



I chose unplated 14k white gold alloyed with palladium. It is extremely white and bright, and I love it. I prefer it over the platinum grey. 18k will be more warm, since it has more gold in it.

 

[cflutist]

I am looking at a metals catalog and under casting grain they show 8 different formulations for 14K White gold which have a Vickers Hardness of 125 (with palladium) to 204 (bright white and X1 white). The 5 different 18K white gold is Vickers hardness of 158 (with palladium) to 231 (X1 white). So generally, 18K is harder.

14K is 14/24 or .583 pure gold
18K is 18/24 or .750 pure gold

 

[WinkHPD]

Hmmm...I think my ring is taking offense at not being called "fine jewelry".



I chose unplated 14k white gold alloyed with palladium. It is extremely white and bright, and I love it. I prefer it over the platinum grey. 18k will be more warm, since it has more gold in it.

While one would expect it to be true that 18kt is warmer, in my experience it is colder. I find unplated 18 kt to be a whiter metal than unplated 14 kt. Perhaps a metal smith can tell us exactly what alloys are used and why it is whiter. Just another case where logic is not correct, at least in my experience.

Wink

 

[cflutist]

As far as casting grain is concerned:

Standard 18K white is 9.8% copper, 5.20% zinc, 9.8% nickel
Standard 14K white is 23.8% copper, 8.8% zinc, 9.0% nickel
14K-X1 white is 17.5 % copper, 8.95% zinc, 15% nickel

FYI, 14K Rose Gold is 39.2% copper, 2% silver, .4% zinc (no nickel)
Standard 14K yellow is 31.6% copper, 5% Silver, 1.9% zinc (no nickel)

 

[EvangelineG]

Hmmm...I think my ring is taking offense at not being called "fine jewelry".



I chose unplated 14k white gold alloyed with palladium. It is extremely white and bright, and I love it. I prefer it over the platinum grey. 18k will be more warm, since it has more gold in it.

While one would expect it to be true that 18kt is warmer, in my experience it is colder. I find unplated 18 kt to be a whiter metal than unplated 14 kt. Perhaps a metal smith can tell us exactly what alloys are used and why it is whiter. Just another case where logic is not correct, at least in my experience.

Wink

Ineteresting. I would, of course, defer to your experience because you have a heck of a lot of it. When I was visiting various jewelers, and looking at a variety of different metal alloys the unplated 18K looked to have a slightly warmer colour, and it was explained to me as being due to the higher gold content. This could have been misinformation. Heaven knows that I encountered a lot of it when shopping locally.

 

[cflutist]

You have to remember that 14KW or 18KW is not just one formulation., there are several of each.

I'm looking at another chart which shows the whiteness of white gold and the platinum group metals
and 14K Palladium White is whiter than 18K Standard White which is whiter than 14K Standard white so Wink is correct there.

However Platinum is whiter than all three of these while Stuller's 14K X1 is whiter than your 14K Palladium White.

 

[WinkHPD]

Hmmm...I think my ring is taking offense at not being called "fine jewelry".



I chose unplated 14k white gold alloyed with palladium. It is extremely white and bright, and I love it. I prefer it over the platinum grey. 18k will be more warm, since it has more gold in it.

While one would expect it to be true that 18kt is warmer, in my experience it is colder. I find unplated 18 kt to be a whiter metal than unplated 14 kt. Perhaps a metal smith can tell us exactly what alloys are used and why it is whiter. Just another case where logic is not correct, at least in my experience.

Wink

Ineteresting. I would, of course, defer to your experience because you have a heck of a lot of it. When I was visiting various jewelers, and looking at a variety of different metal alloys the unplated 18K looked to have a slightly warmer colour, and it was explained to me as being due to the higher gold content. This could have been misinformation. Heaven knows that I encountered a lot of it when shopping locally.

LOL!

I am used to primarily seeing the jewelry that we produce, and the alloys my benches use are very white. I really can not speak for other benches and other jewelers, I just remember, many years ago, being very surprised when I saw a 14 k ring and an 18 kt ring that we had just completed, neither of which was rhodiumed and when I called the bench to confirm that they were correctly stamped I was told that the 18 kt alloy was whiter than the 14 kt.

Wink

 

[craighnt]

So more copper is added as the filler instead of gold, so that explains a lot. Copper is the filler therefore 14k is going to be more warm am I correct?

I guess my other question is, how do you know what the combination of metals are when you go to a jeweler and ask for white gold? Will I get a straight answer or will they actually know what the make up is? Would it be possible to request a different standard combination then what they normally have? Say more palladium then copper?

 

[msop04]

So more copper is added as the filler instead of gold, so that explains a lot. Copper is the filler therefore 14k is going to be more warm am I correct?

I guess my other question is, how do you know what the combination of metals are when you go to a jeweler and ask for white gold? Will I get a straight answer or will they actually know what the make up is? Would it be possible to request a different standard combination then what they normally have? Say more palladium then copper?

For WG (assuming unplated), the more gold = more yellow tint. 18K will have a more yellow color than 14K because 18K has a higher percentage of pure gold... and gold is yellow.

I don't know if copper is used much as a an allow in WG... I know it's used in RG to make it look pink.

Yellow Gold - silver, copper
White Gold - zinc, copper, tin and manganese
Rose Gold - copper, silver
Green Gold - silver, cadmium
Blue Gold - iron
Grey Gold - iron

 

[msop04]

OP, my ering is in 18K WG with rhodium plating. I'd give ANYTHING if I had done X1 white or even 14K, because the shank of my ring looks dingy really quickly on the underside of my hand as the rhodium wears off. X1 is very white and doesn't have to be plated (this would be my first choice if going the WG route). 14K has more nickel than 18K, so it's more white -- as the rhodium wears, it's not as noticeable as 18K. Hope this helps.

 

[msop04]

Here is a link with some info on X1... A lot of jewelers work with it, but you have to ask for it. It's all my local jeweler uses to make their WG pieces.

http://www.stuller.com/articles/view/x1-white-gold-faqs/

 

[cflutist]

Here is a link with some info on X1... A lot of jewelers work with it, but you have to ask for it. It's all my local jeweler uses to make their WG pieces.

http://www.stuller.com/articles/view/x1-white-gold-faqs/

Platinum on the left, Stuller 14K X1 in the middle, 18K White Gold (from the 1980's and don't know the formulation)

 

[Karl_K]

14k x1 is whiter than 18k x1
14k x1 is the whitest white gold I have seen and stays that way with no plating.
The head on my Wifey's ering is 14k x1
According to my bench guy it holds up extremely well after he started using it years ago when I turned him on to it.

In other alloys it can go either way with 18k or 14k being whiter depending on the alloys being compared.

 

[cflutist]

14k x1 is whiter than 18k x1
14k x1 is the whitest white gold I have seen and stays that way with no plating.
The head on my Wifey's ering is 14k x1
According to my bench guy it holds up extremely well after he started using it years ago when I turned him on to it.

In other alloys it can go either way with 18k or 14k being whiter depending on the alloys being compared.

Storm, totally agree with you.

I've had my first Stuller X1 ring since 2006 and it still looks as white now 8 years later as it did then. Anytime I order white gold now,
I order 14K X1.

 

[Dancing Fire]

14k x1 is whiter than 18k x1
14k x1 is the whitest white gold I have seen and stays that way with no plating.
The head on my Wifey's ering is 14k x1
According to my bench guy it holds up extremely well after he started using it years ago when I turned him on to it.

In other alloys it can go either way with 18k or 14k being whiter depending on the alloys being compared.

Storm, totally agree with you.

I've had my first Stuller X1 ring since 2006 and it still looks as white now 8 years later as it did then. Anytime I order white gold now,
I order 14K X1.

Cf...are they more expensive than 14K plated WG?

 

[cflutist]

DF,

Only by a tiny bit.
It is available as casting grain, sheets, wire, etc.

But for you, your Octavia should go into Platinum (just like my CBI is )
Hey, when are is it coming back from AGSL?

 

[cflutist]

OP, my ering is in 18K WG with rhodium plating. I'd give ANYTHING if I had done X1 white or even 14K, because the shank of my ring looks dingy really quickly on the underside of my hand as the rhodium wears off. X1 is very white and doesn't have to be plated (this would be my first choice if going the WG route). 14K has more nickel than 18K, so it's more white -- as the rhodium wears, it's not as noticeable as 18K. Hope this helps.

As stated earlier,

14K X1 is 17.5% Copper, 8.95% zinc, and 15% Nickel
18K X1 is 8.75% Copper, 4.1 % zinc, and 12% Nickel

 

[Dancing Fire]

DF,

Only by a tiny bit.
It is available as casting grain, sheets, wire, etc.

But for you, your Octavia should go into Platinum (just like my CBI is )
Hey, when are is it coming back from AGSL?

I can not afford to pay $5k for a PT tension setting. I hope to hear from Jon soon, it has been 2 weeks since GOG shipped the stone to AGS.

 

[cflutist]

DF,

Only by a tiny bit.
It is available as casting grain, sheets, wire, etc.

But for you, your Octavia should go into Platinum (just like my CBI is )
Hey, when are is it coming back from AGSL?

I can not afford to pay $5k for a PT tension setting. I hope to hear from Jon soon, it has been 2 weeks since GOG shipped the stone to AGS.

You should check with the bench making your ring. I thought tension settings had to be platinum?
Don't cheap out now, after all that with your Octavia, it DESERVES to be set in platinum.

 

[Dancing Fire]

DF,

Only by a tiny bit.
It is available as casting grain, sheets, wire, etc.

But for you, your Octavia should go into Platinum (just like my CBI is )
Hey, when are is it coming back from AGSL?

I can not afford to pay $5k for a PT tension setting. I hope to hear from Jon soon, it has been 2 weeks since GOG shipped the stone to AGS.

You should check with the bench making your ring. I thought tension settings had to be platinum?
Don't cheap out now, after all that with your Octavia, it DESERVES to be set in platinum.

The Skalet Family Jewelers in Old Sac. quoted me an estimate price of $1800 for a 18k WG tension setting.

 

[craighnt]

Here is a link with some info on X1... A lot of jewelers work with it, but you have to ask for it. It's all my local jeweler uses to make their WG pieces.

http://www.stuller.com/articles/view/x1-white-gold-faqs/

Platinum on the left, Stuller 14K X1 in the middle, 18K White Gold (from the 1980's and don't know the formulation)

Thanks for that pic, I had no idea about X1 and it really helps to see the variations of white gold.

 

[ecf8503]

I thought tension settings had to be platinum? .

Just looked on GA's site - they use 14k, 18k, plat, and a gold / pall mix.

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

DF,

Only by a tiny bit.
It is available as casting grain, sheets, wire, etc.

But for you, your Octavia should go into Platinum (just like my CBI is )
Hey, when are is it coming back from AGSL?

I can not afford to pay $5k for a PT tension setting. I hope to hear from Jon soon, it has been 2 weeks since GOG shipped the stone to AGS.

You should check with the bench making your ring. I thought tension settings had to be platinum?
Don't cheap out now, after all that with your Octavia, it DESERVES to be set in platinum.

The Skalet Family Jewelers in Old Sac. quoted me an estimate price of $1800 for a 18k WG tension setting.

You won't go for a Bruce Boone ring DF? My DH has a titanium one and it's perfection for about $500. He's worn it daily for 3 years with no problems. We may eventually get it reset by Bruce with his Cobalt Chrome metal.

 

[Dancing Fire]

[quote="Asscherhalo_lover|
You won't go for a Bruce Boone ring DF? My DH has a titanium one and it's perfection for about $500. He's worn it daily for 3 years with no problems. We may eventually get it reset by Bruce with his Cobalt Chrome metal.[/quote]



I might go with a Boone tension setting just in case I do an upgrade in the future.. so that I wouldn't needed to scrap an expensive setting. I haven't decided yet.