Gold Rings - Understand Gold and its Properties

Karat Gold

24K gold is pure gold or fine gold (99.99% pure) and is very orange and too soft for most jewelry purposes.

Karat golds are made durable by melting 24ct pure gold with other metals to make an alloy. 18K gold (the best gold for most purposes) is "eighteen twenty fourths" 18/24 or 75% gold. The colour and the intended use of the carat gold will determine what other metals will be melted with the gold.

Gold Colors

The most popular color is yellow which is made by adding silver and some copper. The metals are melted together to an alloy of the desired colour and carat. It is very important that all the ingredients are pure and that the amounts of each are weighed very accurately, otherwise inferior quality jewelry will result.

There are two main types of white gold; those used in bands and those for settings. Nickel is added to gold producing a hard white gold, which is ideal for bands of rings but because it is too tough and brittle it is not used on gem settings.

Palladium is used to make white gold for gem settings producing a pliable metal with a very high melting point so that our jewelers do not melt very fine settings and filigree work as they solder them together. Platinum is sometimes added to these alloys to improve certain features.

White gold was invented after the first world war and until that time all white jewelry was made with platinum or silver. This set off the art deco fashion for white jewelry during the 1920's and 30's. Beware of antique white gold jewelry, by definition, an antique is +100 years old.

Pink gold is made by adding more copper than silver. Pink gold was the only lower carat gold available until after the 1st World War, when trained metallurgists discovered the addition of a tiny amount of zinc made a 10K yellow gold alloy. Sometimes designers use pink gold as an accent.

10 karat Gold - The lowest Common gold alloy, considered to not be gold in some places as the content is less than %50 gold, Its hard, it can tarnish a little bit. its lighter, and considerd a low end alloy,

12 karat The strongest gold alloy out there, half gold, and equal parts silver/copper, very hard for gold. Not commonly used exept as an overlay on gold filled jewelry aka real junk.

14 karat The most common mid grade alloy out there, Its the norm in the US it holds up well but has a higher implied value than 10k, most Americans like the color. Its the most common for decent quality jewelry

18 karat Considerd high end in the states, its 75% pure a richer color, and softer metal.

20k, 22k and 24k very soft, almost pure or pure, deep rich color, too much for most americans, most folks think its plated or costume jewelry Its the norm in South East Asia and other places in the world and is usualy smithed into some amazing works.

White alloys:

There are two kinds of white gold, Nickel based and palladium based. Some people can react too the nickel based allows, the Palladium is the only legal alloy in Europe, its a few grams more expesnive, about the same cost as 18k it also self bunishes and keeps a polish. If nickle white gold is not cast at a very high temp it can have some yellowing in the grain and polish as an overtone.

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