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Unplated 14K white gold question.

luvsdmb

Brilliant_Rock
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I have read so many threads about different metals but I still have a few questions.

If I had my ring made with 14K plated white gold will it eventually after the rhodium is worn off be the same and look the same as if I just had it made unplated from the start?

Does 14K unplated white gold get more yellow over the years?

Does 14K unplated lose its shine over the years?

Thanks
 

momma2boys

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Hello! My 2 diamond wedding bands are unplated 14k white gold. I LOVE the look. Not as yellow as yellow gold and not as white as plated white gold. If you like the antique look, I would go for it. I'm pretty sure that the coloring will not change over time and you can get them re-polished just like with any other metal, to regain the smooth finish.
 

bgray

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momma2boys|1391191665|3605157 said:
Hello! My 2 diamond wedding bands are unplated 14k white gold. I LOVE the look. Not as yellow as yellow gold and not as white as plated white gold. If you like the antique look, I would go for it. I'm pretty sure that the coloring will not change over time and you can get them re-polished just like with any other metal, to regain the smooth finish.

do you have any pics? are they grayish?
 

Maisie

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I'm really curious to know what my white gold ring would look like if I had the rhodium plating removed.
 

Niel

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To your first question. I'd rather start off unplated and get it plated if you need then start plated and let it rub off. Sense it doesn't wear at the same rate all over your ring.
 

luvsdmb

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momma2boys|1391191665|3605157 said:
Hello! My 2 diamond wedding bands are unplated 14k white gold. I LOVE the look. Not as yellow as yellow gold and not as white as plated white gold. If you like the antique look, I would go for it. I'm pretty sure that the coloring will not change over time and you can get them re-polished just like with any other metal, to regain the smooth finish.

Hi,
Is your e-ring 14K unplated or plated? Or another metal? I love the engraving!!
 

momma2boys

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luvsdmb said:
momma2boys|1391191665|3605157 said:
Hello! My 2 diamond wedding bands are unplated 14k white gold. I LOVE the look. Not as yellow as yellow gold and not as white as plated white gold. If you like the antique look, I would go for it. I'm pretty sure that the coloring will not change over time and you can get them re-polished just like with any other metal, to regain the smooth finish.

Hi,
Is your e-ring 14K unplated or plated? Or another metal? I love the engraving!!

Thank you!! My e-ring is actually 18k plated white gold. I'm looking forward to the rings blending together more when the plating wears off a little
 

luvsdmb

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Yes it does, thank you. That is the first picture I have seen where I can see the soft yellow to it. It is pretty.
I posted this picture of Niel's ring, hope she doesn't mind. It is also 14K unplated, but it looks completely different than yours.
I Wonder why?
I guess I better call a few local stores and see if they have anything I could check out in person.

_14400.jpg
 

Niel

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Could be the lighting, the alloy, the amount of gold... Also there is no comparison metal to judge I off of in my shot.

I think on its own it always seems white enough (14 k gold I mean) but the color becomes obvious next to rhodium plated metals.
 

luvsdmb

Brilliant_Rock
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Niel,
Could you please post the picture you took for my other topic? The two rings together, and maybe if you are bored at some point maybe you could take one of them together showing underneath similar to the picture above. :devil: ;))
 

Niel

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I'll try and get some tomorrow. My ring got sized and it was cheap so my marquise underbelly didn't get replayed when they sized it so I'm not sure if it would be helpful. But I might be able to get a few more for you tomorrow. :)
 

luvsdmb

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That would be great thank you. I seem to be using your ring a lot lately, for the metal and the way it's made. I am starting to look at settings for my five stone, so if you have any suggestions feel free to share.
I might start a new thread once I start to narrow down what I'm actually doing. As of right now I have a ton of ideas swirling in my head.
Thanks
 

momma2boys

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I've been thinking about this thread and I find it so interesting how different un-plated white gold can look depending on what alloys are used to make it! My bands compared to Niel's ring are like night and day different! I kind of forget about that sometimes, obviously, because in my original post I was referring to how un-plated WG looks like a cross between plated white gold and yellow gold, but it obviously depends!! Sorry about that! :oops:
 

yssie

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momma2boys|1391308349|3606155 said:
I've been thinking about this thread and I find it so interesting how different un-plated white gold can look depending on what alloys are used to make it! My bands compared to Niel's ring are like night and day different! I kind of forget about that sometimes, obviously, because in my original post I was referring to how un-plated WG looks like a cross between plated white gold and yellow gold, but it obviously depends!! Sorry about that! :oops:

Unplated WG of any karat definitely can look HUGELY different depending on exact alloy/composition! I have a significant number of unplated pieces in various alloys and I love playing with the nuances of colour - it's my favourite metal by far ::) This does mean, though, that pics of unplated WG samples may be misleading unless you know the composition details. "Nickel-WG" alloys can vary quite a bit based on trace alloys, so even 'nickel vs. palladium' may be insufficient info, depending on what you want to know...

SB and I posted quite a bit about it in this thread: [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/yoo-hoo-yssie-metal-question-for-you.192990/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/yoo-hoo-yssie-metal-question-for-you.192990/[/URL]
And here's another with more discussion: [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/which-metal-compliments-a-warm-stone-best.160706/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/which-metal-compliments-a-warm-stone-best.160706/[/URL]

There are several comparison pictures as well, but just to illustrate the above here's one I took a few months ago. Composition information is in the first thread I linked. The middle five bands are all unplated 18k WG of different alloys, and you can see even in the pic how different they look!

_14434.jpg
 

luvsdmb

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momma2boys|1391195318|3605214 said:
I hope this helps and I hope you can see the difference!!

Hi,

I got to thinking and wondering if your entire ring is this same color? I have a feeling it's not and maybe the shank seems more gold because of the wear? I never imagined this part of a ring would be so difficult to figure out, and I haven't even started thinking of the color of my stones being K and how that impacts things.
 

luvsdmb

Brilliant_Rock
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Yssie,
I just stole this from your thread, hope you don't mind. I am really loving the three stone ring color. My skin tone is very orange, do you think this could work for me? Also thank you for your last post with the link's to the other threads. I really need to study them and figure out what I'm wanting these diamonds to do, show off their color or make them appear more white. I guess I really don't care, I just want the metal to look good with them. I am pretty sure I don't want platinum.

This pic shows the colour I see very well:


-Three-stone and the plain band under it are both unplated 18k Ni-wg, slightly different alloys as the band is a little more steely
-DBTY is 14k yg
-Plain band in top L. corner is sterling
-Baby bezels are plat.
-8-prong martinis are plated 14k wg

yssie.jpg
 

momma2boys

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Yssie said:
momma2boys|1391308349|3606155 said:
I've been thinking about this thread and I find it so interesting how different un-plated white gold can look depending on what alloys are used to make it! My bands compared to Niel's ring are like night and day different! I kind of forget about that sometimes, obviously, because in my original post I was referring to how un-plated WG looks like a cross between plated white gold and yellow gold, but it obviously depends!! Sorry about that! :oops:

Unplated WG of any karat definitely can look HUGELY different depending on exact alloy/composition! I have a significant number of unplated pieces in various alloys and I love playing with the nuances of colour - it's my favourite metal by far ::) This does mean, though, that pics of unplated WG samples may be misleading unless you know the composition details. "Nickel-WG" alloys can vary quite a bit based on trace alloys, so even 'nickel vs. palladium' may be insufficient info, depending on what you want to know...

SB and I posted quite a bit about it in this thread: [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/yoo-hoo-yssie-metal-question-for-you.192990/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/yoo-hoo-yssie-metal-question-for-you.192990/[/URL]
And here's another with more discussion: [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/which-metal-compliments-a-warm-stone-best.160706/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/which-metal-compliments-a-warm-stone-best.160706/[/URL]

There are several comparison pictures as well, but just to illustrate the above here's one I took a few months ago. Composition information is in the first thread I linked. The middle five bands are all unplated 18k WG of different alloys, and you can see even in the pic how different they look!

Yssie, thank you so much for your input!! Very, very interesting!
 

yssie

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No worries! Here are some more unplated WG comparisons which might help, I've re-labelled them with the same letters and descriptions so hopefully it is easier to compare:

Pic#1
A - PT950/Ru
B - 18k (custom piece) from DBL, exact composition: "Palladium-WG" - don't know exact alloy
C - 18k WG (custom piece) from RDG, exact composition: [75% Fine Gold] [17% Palladium] [5% Pure Silver] [3% Platinum]
In-person (C) is reads "white" unless compared with (A) or (B). When compared with (A) or (B) it reads "ever so slightly eggshell"
D - 18k WG (old stock alloy) from e-wb, exact composition: ?
E - 18k WG (custom piece) from WF, exact composition: [75%AU] [9.8%CU] [9.8%NI] [5.22%ZN]
F - 18k WG (new stock alloy) from e-wb, exact composition: [75%AU] [16.5%CU] [4%NI] [4.5%ZN]
In-person (F) is slightly yellower and pinker than (E), especially under fluorescents
G - 14k YG
_14434.jpg


Pic#2
A - PT950/Ru
F - 18k WG (new stock alloy) from e-wb, exact composition: [75%AU] [16.5%CU] [4%NI] [4.5%ZN]
D - 18k WG (old stock alloy) from e-wb, exact composition: ?
H - plated WG from WF
I - 22k YG
metals1_relabeled.png


Pic#3
F - 18k WG (new stock alloy) from e-wb, exact composition: [75%AU] [16.5%CU] [4%NI] [4.5%ZN]
D - 18k WG (old stock alloy) from e-wb, exact composition: ?
B - 18k (custom piece) from DBL, exact composition: "Palladium-WG" - don't know exact alloy
A - PT950/Ru
In-person, in most lights, (B) reads "greyish" or "pinkish" rather than "yellowy"/"creamy"/"ivory"
metals2_relabeled.png


luv -
I'm Indian, so my skin is always "tan" but it errs yellow rather than pink/orange. I adore unplated WG of pretty much any colour and I think it suits my colouring, but another PSer Valmanin had the opposite experience - loved it in pictures, didn't like how it looked on her skin IRL. Unfortunately getting hold of a variety of alloys to play with isn't exactly easy! I think it's just trial and error until you hit on *your* metal...

The three-stone is (E) in Pic#1 (I cropped out everything but the shank). In-person it looks pale yellow in almost all lights - I never look at it and think "white", it's consistently on the "yellow" side of that fence. To my eyes (D) in Pic#1/Pic#2/Pic#3 straddles the fence perfectly: sometimes it's "white", sometimes it's "yellow". This (D) is the plain band lying under the threestone in the pic you posted, for reference.

Unfortunately I don't know what it is! I didn't think to inquire into manufacturer or alloy at the time of purchase in 2010, and when I called in last year to try and find out more they didn't have any record of where it came from or what it was made of, only that it was an order for an 18k WG band. In 2010 it was their stock alloy, and when I wanted a yellower band a couple of months later they had to have a different manufacturer custom make it (that's (F) in Pic#1/#2/#3). Interestingly, the alloy (F) is now their stock alloy! The rep I spoke to last year hypothesised that perhaps (D) was the same alloy as (F) but had originally been plated, and looks whiter because the plating is slowly wearing off, but I know this isn't the case for two reasons:
1. Plating doesn't partly wear off - any given part of the ring is either plated or unplated, and a ring that's losing it's plating looks splotchy rather than uniformly lighter all over, and
2. I polish my own bands at home, and that band has been subjected to my dremel probably ten, fifteen times - there's NO way any plating wouldn't have completely worn off by now! :cheeky:


So now that you know the complete history of Yssie's unplated WG habit, the good news - I don't know the alloy of (D) but I DO know that the metal of my unplated 14k WG eternity from WF (their regular mix for custom pieces, whatever that is) is dead on for it!!! So if you decide you'd like to try it, it'd be very easy to find out exactly what it is. It's the band next to the eternity in the pic below - the lighting's off so it's not a great visual, but I wear them together every day in all sorts of lights and my eyes always say the same ::)

yssieuprongwf_6.png


I like an overall "warm" look, so my personal preference is for lower-coloured J-M diamonds paired with yellower WGs like (D), (E), and (F) in Pic#1 - and I like it even better paired with high-karat YG design elements or bands :love:
 

momma2boys

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luvsdmb said:
momma2boys|1391195318|3605214 said:
I hope this helps and I hope you can see the difference!!

Hi,

I got to thinking and wondering if your entire ring is this same color? I have a feeling it's not and maybe the shank seems more gold because of the wear? I never imagined this part of a ring would be so difficult to figure out, and I haven't even started thinking of the color of my stones being K and how that impacts things.

The bands are actually fairly new and they were plated when made and I had the jewelers take off as much of it as they could when the rings were completed bc I realized how much I preferred that look.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but the un-plated gold is the true gold and shouldn't change in appearance with time and wear. So the color of my bands should remain this color, which is very appealing to me.
 

yssie

Super_Ideal_Rock
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momma2boys|1391467871|3607257 said:
luvsdmb said:
momma2boys|1391195318|3605214 said:
I hope this helps and I hope you can see the difference!!

Hi,

I got to thinking and wondering if your entire ring is this same color? I have a feeling it's not and maybe the shank seems more gold because of the wear? I never imagined this part of a ring would be so difficult to figure out, and I haven't even started thinking of the color of my stones being K and how that impacts things.

The bands are actually fairly new and they were plated when made and I had the jewelers take off as much of it as they could when the rings were completed bc I realized how much I preferred that look.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but the un-plated gold is the true gold and shouldn't change in appearance with time and wear. So the color of my bands should remain this color, which is very appealing to me.

Yup, they should stay the colour they are now! :bigsmile:
 

momma2boys

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Yssie said:
momma2boys|1391467871|3607257 said:
luvsdmb said:
momma2boys|1391195318|3605214 said:
I hope this helps and I hope you can see the difference!!

Hi,

I got to thinking and wondering if your entire ring is this same color? I have a feeling it's not and maybe the shank seems more gold because of the wear? I never imagined this part of a ring would be so difficult to figure out, and I haven't even started thinking of the color of my stones being K and how that impacts things.

The bands are actually fairly new and they were plated when made and I had the jewelers take off as much of it as they could when the rings were completed bc I realized how much I preferred that look.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but the un-plated gold is the true gold and shouldn't change in appearance with time and wear. So the color of my bands should remain this color, which is very appealing to me.

Yup, they should stay the colour they are now! :bigsmile:

Thanks, Yssie!! :wavey: :wavey:
 

luvsdmb

Brilliant_Rock
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Thank you so much for all the information and pictures.

I contacted the place where I will be having my setting made to get the exact metal information. She did say that it doesn't turn yellowish, so I'm not sure what that means exactly if I wanted unplated.

I guess either way it doesn't matter what I pick, I am just having a basic band made that is shared prong for my five AVC stones. So there won't be very much metal showing.

I was thinking more of the stones, and more of the upkeep of it. I actually thought of having the shank yellow gold since my husbands ring is 14K yellow gold. Then have the shoulders be white gold and underneath also be white gold. Something similar to this ring.
(I love how this ring is both, I love the gold color, I am not sure who this ring belongs to or any of the details of it)

But I am just not sure how to pull this off, because I really don't want to see the gold when looking at my ring.

I think I might be putting to much thought into this. :-o

_14513.jpg
 

yssie

Super_Ideal_Rock
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luvsdmb said:
Thank you so much for all the information and pictures.

I contacted the place where I will be having my setting made to get the exact metal information. She did say that it doesn't turn yellowish, so I'm not sure what that means exactly if I wanted unplated.

I guess either way it doesn't matter what I pick, I am just having a basic band made that is shared prong for my five AVC stones. So there won't be very much metal showing.

I was thinking more of the stones, and more of the upkeep of it. I actually thought of having the shank yellow gold since my husbands ring is 14K yellow gold. Then have the shoulders be white gold and underneath also be white gold. Something similar to this ring.

But I am just not sure how to pull this off, because I really don't want to see the gold when looking at my ring.

I think I might be putting to much thought into this. :-o

So... you'll have five AVC stones in a row, and you want to have a yellow(er) shank and white(r) head, and you don't want to see the yellow(er) shank when you look at your ring face-up?

What style of five-stone setting have you chosen, can you post a photo? I personally dislike when one design element is bi-coloured - I want each design element to be one uniform colour, so IMO which parts to colour white vs. yellow depends entirely on the setting style. How large are your AVCs? How much of your finger they cover largely determines how much of the shank you see face-up...

I had this made for my mum a couple of years ago. Setting by WF, stones are ~2.25ctw, ring size 6.5, shank 18k YG, head 18k unplated palladium-WG. You don't see any of the yellow shank face-up, but the four prongs per stone maxes out finger coverage - with a traditional shared-prong they'd sit closer together.
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/wf-made-my-mum-a-pressie-a-2-25ct-oec-five-stone.173503/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/wf-made-my-mum-a-pressie-a-2-25ct-oec-five-stone.173503/[/URL]

J-Mum-1.png
J-Mum-3.png
 

yssie

Super_Ideal_Rock
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momma2boys, I actually have a question if you wouldn't mind? How did your jeweller remove the plating? I know you can remove it mechanically, by polishing/deliberately rubbing it off the surface, and I've been informed that it can be removed electrochemically but I've never seen or heard of anyone having this done. I have a couple of pieces I'd love to have unplated but they're busier designs with stones and engraving and nooks and crannies so polishing the plating off isn't an option...
 

luvsdmb

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ6-SUphWY4

My plan is this setting in the video. I am using another place. I would love to have GOG make it but it is not in my budget.

My 5 stones are .31ct K colored. My ring size is 9.5. This is my wedding band. I also have been thinking of having a small band made to wear along with it? But I am not sure, if I use gold this idea is out, if I use white gold then possibly.
I am also not sure what width it will be, the stones are 3.87 or 3.9 x 4mm. My fingers are short and stubby, so I want it to be comfortable.

avc_10.jpg

five_1.jpg

3_or_5__2_0.jpg
 

yssie

Super_Ideal_Rock
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I think that style would work well with a YG shank and shoulders and white metal baskets. If you do see any of the yellow shank face-up I would think it would be minimal - certainly not an "obvious" or "in-your-face" amount of yellow...
 

momma2boys

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Yssie said:
momma2boys, I actually have a question if you wouldn't mind? How did your jeweller remove the plating? I know you can remove it mechanically, by polishing/deliberately rubbing it off the surface, and I've been informed that it can be removed electrochemically but I've never seen or heard of anyone having this done. I have a couple of pieces I'd love to have unplated but they're busier designs with stones and engraving and nooks and crannies so polishing the plating off isn't an option...


Ahhhhhh, Yssie, I'm so sorry for taking so long to respond back to you! :oops: I emailed the jewelry store where I got my bands soon after you asked your question, and it took until TODAY to hear back. Boo. Anyway, here is the response that I received:

"All we do it polish the ring and it will remove the rhodium plating from the white gold, it will be a shiny light yellow color then. It’s very easy, just like making yellow gold look shiny again ;-)"

I hope this helps! :)
 

luvsdmb

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I need to decide between 14K white gold or platinum for my AVC band. I decided to pass on the unplated idea.

I don't think it makes a difference but for just a little more money I could go with platinum. I like the heaviness to platinum, and since you won't be seeing to much metal with my ring the patina won't bother me.

I would like to hear what you think if you own 14K and platinum, which one do you like more? How do they wear? Anything else you might want to share would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
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