PhillipSchmidt
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2004
- Messages
- 667
There is a lot of hit and miss with rhodium plating. It is expensive and it is hard to maintain the solutions in perfect order. Jewellery polishing shops are inherently dirty and it takes some effort to keep them clean. When the solutions are new they are great, but I fear a lot of jewellers hang onto the old solution - filter it a few too many times etc and even though the plating isn''t perfect anymore they keep using it until it becomes more noticeable.
That point may be too late…
I am sure that says heaps about the discrepancy in the time it takes to wear off.
Good or bad, there are ways to make it work better. Juan Manuel made a good post about flash plating. This takes more time, but the benefits are definitely real.
Like most things relating to labour costs in the jewellery business, you can have one person charging $10 and another $20 and it is actually the $10 person who is making the most money. It really depends on the individual and what he is prepared to do for you and why.
Hi Schatzley,
I only use palladium w/g. It is a good colour but I rhodium plate it none the less. I have been using particularly white platinum lately and it is as white as rhodium plated metal. It takes such a good polish that I don''t rhodium plate it very often - I still do. Rhodium gives just that bit of extra shine. It scratches differently and a little too noticeably to use in wrought work which doesn''t scratch much at all.
I always give my customers the choice of rhodium or not. I use it for the colour and the brightness especially where diamonds are concerned, but I don''t offer off white w/g. Good w/g is readily available – just costs a little more p/gram. Yellow or greyish w/g looks terrible when it comes off badly coloured w/g.
I started this thread to get an idea of how long I should say rhodium lasts to my customers. Thank you. I have loads of questions in my head about which metals take it better and what wears it away.
I imagine – (if it is how things work) - that I am the person who would wear off the rhodium in a few months that another would keep in good condition for a few years. (You don’t want to know how many pairs of shoes I go though). In fact, I think I am pretty accurate with telling by looking at a client how wearable their piece of jewellery should be.
I think a lot of what we are seeing here, in terms of how long rhodium lasts depends on the metal underneath. The older the w/g the more palladium (even platinum) content the alloy has and that says something, and older pieces here are the ones that appear to keep the rhodium in tact the longest! It must have a lot to do with the whiter base colour (the older ones are whiter), but I also suspect the platinum metal group metals - palladium/platinum/rhodium/iridium/ruthenium etc, bind better with rhodium.
I definitely know that some metals take gold plating better (as Steve points out - he nickel plates silver before rhodium plating it – a trick commonly used to plate gold on steel watches etc). I don''t know how much, but I think this is an important point in understanding why rhodium lasts 5months or 4 years (plus all the others…)
The hard part is getting any empirical evidence as the time span being over a few years and the variables concerned makes it difficult for the retailer (who sends their jewels off all looking the same) to get enough feed back to at least derive an opinion.
Anybody have a platinum jewel with rhodium plating that has come off? You have to look close to see it – even try using a loupe. The lack of platinum users in this post says a lot I think. Colour, colour, colour
Almost at a conclusion,
Phillip
That point may be too late…
I am sure that says heaps about the discrepancy in the time it takes to wear off.
Good or bad, there are ways to make it work better. Juan Manuel made a good post about flash plating. This takes more time, but the benefits are definitely real.
Like most things relating to labour costs in the jewellery business, you can have one person charging $10 and another $20 and it is actually the $10 person who is making the most money. It really depends on the individual and what he is prepared to do for you and why.
Hi Schatzley,
I only use palladium w/g. It is a good colour but I rhodium plate it none the less. I have been using particularly white platinum lately and it is as white as rhodium plated metal. It takes such a good polish that I don''t rhodium plate it very often - I still do. Rhodium gives just that bit of extra shine. It scratches differently and a little too noticeably to use in wrought work which doesn''t scratch much at all.
I always give my customers the choice of rhodium or not. I use it for the colour and the brightness especially where diamonds are concerned, but I don''t offer off white w/g. Good w/g is readily available – just costs a little more p/gram. Yellow or greyish w/g looks terrible when it comes off badly coloured w/g.
I started this thread to get an idea of how long I should say rhodium lasts to my customers. Thank you. I have loads of questions in my head about which metals take it better and what wears it away.
I imagine – (if it is how things work) - that I am the person who would wear off the rhodium in a few months that another would keep in good condition for a few years. (You don’t want to know how many pairs of shoes I go though). In fact, I think I am pretty accurate with telling by looking at a client how wearable their piece of jewellery should be.
I think a lot of what we are seeing here, in terms of how long rhodium lasts depends on the metal underneath. The older the w/g the more palladium (even platinum) content the alloy has and that says something, and older pieces here are the ones that appear to keep the rhodium in tact the longest! It must have a lot to do with the whiter base colour (the older ones are whiter), but I also suspect the platinum metal group metals - palladium/platinum/rhodium/iridium/ruthenium etc, bind better with rhodium.
I definitely know that some metals take gold plating better (as Steve points out - he nickel plates silver before rhodium plating it – a trick commonly used to plate gold on steel watches etc). I don''t know how much, but I think this is an important point in understanding why rhodium lasts 5months or 4 years (plus all the others…)
The hard part is getting any empirical evidence as the time span being over a few years and the variables concerned makes it difficult for the retailer (who sends their jewels off all looking the same) to get enough feed back to at least derive an opinion.
Anybody have a platinum jewel with rhodium plating that has come off? You have to look close to see it – even try using a loupe. The lack of platinum users in this post says a lot I think. Colour, colour, colour
Almost at a conclusion,
Phillip
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