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Metals that can be worn safely with Platinum?

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crowmama

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I know that the best metal to wear with any metal is the one with the same hardness to avoid excessive abrasion. For example, a gold wedding band next to a platinum engagement band will quickly wear away to a nubbin, because of platinums harder properties.

What metals (besides plat, of course!) can be worn safely with platinum? Palladium? Titanium? anything?

Just curious...
 

elsie

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Crowmama,

I''ve wondered about this for a while too. To me, it doesn''t logically seem possible to say for sure whether two different metals can wear each other away. It should depend on the hardness of each metal, which in turn depends on the composition (some alloying metals are harder than others) as well as how it was made (cast, extruded, etc.). I did some searches, and found different hardness ranges for each metal depending on the alloy type and whether it was cast/annealed, etc. So I guess if you knew exactly what the composition of each ring was and how it was made, you could figure out how bad wear would be. Otherwise, I don''t know.

Can experts chime in to clear up this confusion? A scientific/chemical description of this would satisfy my curiosity.

Since I haven''t found a convincing argument yet, I''ll soon be wearing my palladium band with my WG e-ring.
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Beacon

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This is an interesting question and I wonder about it too. For example, I have a pendant done in white gold - can I hang it on a platinum chain? Will that ruin the pendant? So far I have only put the pendant on gold chains.

Any experts or people who have tried this?
 

diamondseeker2006

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I''m kind of glad this came up. When I was home last I looked more closely at my mother''s rings. She wears a platinum e-ring and wedding band, and I noticed her diamond anniversary band was white gold. She has worn them together at least 20 or more years. Guess what?! The white gold band is not worn away at all that I could see! Her rings are fairly flush and they fit her finger, so there is really no rubbing. So sometimes the "rules" we hear may or may not be accurate. The only time I''d hesitate to wear gold and platinum together is if they were not flush as then you''d probably have some rubbing.
 

crowmama

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Elise, thank you for the article! It does answer a few questions I had. Bravo!
 

elsie

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You''re welcome, crowmama -- glad I could help!
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Garry H (Cut Nut)

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Date: 12/6/2006 3:09:10 PM
Author: elsie
I''ve posted this before, but here''s a link: http://experts.about.com/q/Jewelry-Gems-Minerals-689/Platinum-verses-White-Gold-1.htm to an interesting article that made me question the hard & fast rule about wearing different metals...

I beg to differ over two points made in that link:

"White gold is made from pure gold with either nickel or palladium added to make the white color from a naturally very yellow metal. White gold is almost never “completely white” but is quite white compared to yellow gold. White gold is a bit harder than yellow and will wear better over time."
White and yellow gold, or different carat golds for that matter, effecitively wear out at the same rate when worn by themselves. It is all the other things in the environment that cause the wear - and this is mostly much harder tings like steel cutlery and quartz grains in dust etc - they cause the wear and the relative hardness differences are too small to make a difference.
but nickel white gold and 14K yellow gold for example are much harder to bend and this "toughness" means they will not show that they have worn as much as they get thinner.


and this comment:

BOTTOM LINE TO YOUR QUESTION.
Where the two rings touch, the wear will be of a different nature but is insignificant. The platinum will not wear away the white gold ring or visa versa. There is not a conflict with the two metals. I suspect you will have no problems with the white gold ring from wearing it with a platinum one.
The rest of the information in this explanation was excellent - so dont get me wrong - but this last comment is also NQR.
The platinum will wear away any type of gold worn beside it (but palladium lower carat white golds will last longest and maybe pure palladium will do better too - but I have no experiance in that (I have 32 years experiance as a jeweller at the bench for about 12 years- and an employer of 6 full time jewellers)).
The reason platinum does not wear away is that it smears (as explained) and that it seems to pick up particles of dust which make it become an abrasive. Silver has that property too to some extent and wears away gold - so silver beside platinum might even be a close to = wear - but silver is not good for diamond settings as it tarnishes under the stones.
 

elsie

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Garry, thanks very much for that explanation. It''s the first I''ve heard that really explains the WG/platinum incompatibility.
 

diamondseeker2006

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Maybe over a long, long time there would be a problem, but like I said, with 20 years wear, there was no detectable thinning of my mother''s wg band, so I''d say unless she was to wear them for another 50 or so, I doubt we''d see a problem.
 

crowmama

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Gary, thanks for your response. I suppose this question must get asked regularly, and we appreciate when trade folks like you (and Rhino, and OldMiner, et.al.) add your comments to clarify things.
 

pyramid

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Date: 12/6/2006 9:38:11 PM
Author: diamondseeker2006
Maybe over a long, long time there would be a problem, but like I said, with 20 years wear, there was no detectable thinning of my mother''s wg band, so I''d say unless she was to wear them for another 50 or so, I doubt we''d see a problem.
Do you know what karat gold is in your mothers white gold anniversary band, is it a lower one as Garry said?
 

diamondseeker2006

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Date: 12/7/2006 9:58:05 AM
Author: Pyramid

Date: 12/6/2006 9:38:11 PM
Author: diamondseeker2006
Maybe over a long, long time there would be a problem, but like I said, with 20 years wear, there was no detectable thinning of my mother''s wg band, so I''d say unless she was to wear them for another 50 or so, I doubt we''d see a problem.
Do you know what karat gold is in your mothers white gold anniversary band, is it a lower one as Garry said?
I think he was referring to 14k yellow gold. The same is not true of wg. One of the appraisers on here, Neil maybe?, said that most 18k white gold is harder/more durable than 14k wg. But to answer your question, I did not look to see if it was 14 or 18k. I got 18k white gold for my rings because of it being more durable.
 

pyramid

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Date: 12/6/2006 7:48:41 PM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)





BOTTOM LINE TO YOUR QUESTION.
Where the two rings touch, the wear will be of a different nature but is insignificant. The platinum will not wear away the white gold ring or visa versa. There is not a conflict with the two metals. I suspect you will have no problems with the white gold ring from wearing it with a platinum one.
The rest of the information in this explanation was excellent - so dont get me wrong - but this last comment is also NQR.
The platinum will wear away any type of gold worn beside it (but palladium lower carat white golds will last longest and maybe pure palladium will do better too - but I have no experiance in that (I have 32 years experiance as a jeweller at the bench for about 12 years- and an employer of 6 full time jewellers)).
The reason platinum does not wear away is that it smears (as explained) and that it seems to pick up particles of dust which make it become an abrasive. Silver has that property too to some extent and wears away gold - so silver beside platinum might even be a close to = wear - but silver is not good for diamond settings as it tarnishes under the stones.

diamondseeker

It was the highlighted part I was referring too. Just wondered out of interest as you said there was no wear on her eternity ring. It is the being next to platinum that is the cause of the wear though.
 
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