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Palladium wedding bands

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wolftress

Brilliant_Rock
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FI and I are considering palladium wedding bands. Platinum is out of our budget, but I don''t like the idea of having to rhodium-plate our rings in future. I was wondering if anyone knew anything about palladium wedding bands, if anyone has had any problems with them, or anything like that.

We are considering getting them from www.e-weddingbands.com
 
I wonder if they are as hardy as platinum.
 
I''m getting a palladium wedding band! I just couldn''t stomach the cost of platinum, it''s just so unreasonable right now. The ring is a pretty decent size so I''m glad that palladium is lighter than platinum. Which again makes it more a more reasonable price. Not only does palladium cost less per ounce, but less mass goes into the same volume.

I don''t really know how they wear... as in platinum scratches easier than gold but doesn''t actually lose any metal. I don''t know which palladium does. I do know that there are still antique palladium wedding sets in good condition on the market that were made in the 40''s. (During WW II palladium was used for jewelry instead of platinum since that was used for the war).

They are very closely related and have similar properties and color. However palladium isn''t quite as unreactant as platinum. Platinum doesn''t react at all to anything, palladium will oxidize a bit in a very sulfer rich enviroment. Not exactly an over-whelming concern for jewelry, you know?

Basically I think it''s just as good a jewelry material as gold or platinum and I''m glad to be seeing it used more often.
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Palladium has the same problems as Platinum though. it doesn''t polish very well, so it will have a rippled surface iff you look closely at it. It can be brittle. It does crazy things around hydrogen.

but it is really inexpensive as platinum group metals go. its heavy, it is whiter than platinum.

It does have porosity problems, where bubbles form while it is being cast. imagine an aero bar.

If you go palladium look at the bottom of the ring closely, if you notice elliptical dimples have them filled in with a laserwelder. or you will have problems with cracking.
 
Could titanium be a better option?
 
Or titanium with a palladium inlay. From what I''ve read, palladium is poised to become the new platinum. To me, it looks exactly like platinum but it''s a lot cheaper.
 
I would be afraid to have a metal as hard to cut as titanium wrapped around my finger.

Have you considered tungsten carbide? whieghs like platinum, and hard as sapphire. The stuff doesn't scratch or bend. It can crack though, but it is usually not by accident. If it needed to be removed it can be broken in a visegrips.
 
As I''ve said before on the forum, titanium rings can be cut by ring cutters, hacksaws, Dremel tools, or bolt cutters. I''ve removed them from my own fingers with each of these methods. I also had a customer that had to have one removed before. It was no problem at all, and she got another titanium ring.

Carbide is a good choice for hardness. It''s so hard that it cannot be machined or cut with a hacksaw, but has to be made by grinding with CNC diamond grinding wheels. It is not as good for resizing though. Whereas titanium can easily be stretched up to around a half size, carbide cannot be stretched without cracking. Most manufacturers do offer some kind of remake policy though.
 
Palladium is interesting.

Specific gravity is 12 compared to 14K @ 13.5 and platinum @ 21.

It is not as white as platinum but doesn''t show a yellow cast as most white golds. Very close to platinu in color. In fact, most platinum solders contain no platinum and palladium is the basic metal used.

Hot palladium is used as a filter to purify hydrogen as hydrogen can pass through while all other gasses are stopped. This might be a problem if you like to use hydrogen in your benchwork. I don''t.

Although I don''t know it''s hardness, I have used to lot of it for bead and brightcutting as it is softer than white gold maybe even platinum and very maleable. Be assured that it does wear faster than platinum.

It forms a thin blue oxide at somewhere around 900F but this disappears again as the metal approaches 1100F.

I have never used any really good solders for it as when I used palladium the most, we used standard gold solders. I believe that there are now more appropriate solders.
 
I thought palladium can''t be resized. Anyone know why that is?
 
Date: 5/1/2007 11:17:38 PM
Author: Sparkles22
I thought palladium can''t be resized. Anyone know why that is?
I don''t think this is true.
 
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