Platinum vs White Gold claws for shared setting 5 stone ring

[Wombats]

Hello

We are being given conflicting advice on the best way to go and am after some feedback please. We are looking at having a 5 stone ring made, similar to the below, in a shared prong setting with 0.3-0.35cts per each diamond. I love the way you are still able to see the "roundness" of the RB diamonds in this setting, compared with four prongs on each diamond. I also like the low profile and prefer this to the U Prong.

Setting by IDJ that we are looking at:
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/i-d-jewelry-5-stone-ring.142391/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/i-d-jewelry-5-stone-ring.142391/[/URL]
or
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/new-id-jewelry-5-stone-ring-hubba-hubba.138853/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/new-id-jewelry-5-stone-ring-hubba-hubba.138853/[/URL]

We will use a YG band.

So my questions is, do we use WG or Platinum claws for the setting?

Different jewellers have told us that both are better. Some say that WG is shinier (with regular rodium plating) and more flexible. Some say platinum is stronger.

Given it is a share prong setting, which do you think will be more secure? We're concerned about this, as some jewellers won't offer us a shared prong setting as they believe the risk of losing the diamond is too great.

Thanks so much for your help.

 

[yssie]

Re: Platinum vs White Gold claws for shared setting 5 stone

The layer of rhodium applied is microns thick - not nearly thick enough to minimize appearance of scratches or provide extra scratch-resistance. That said, a piece will often be polished prior to plating, which does remove surface scratches, so the whole process of rhodium-plating may indeed lead to seeing that "new shiny!!" look more often if you're a frequent-plater (in general, that is - in this particular case noone's going to recommend polishing shared prongs regularly )

Personally I despise rhodium - why cover a precious metal? - so I'll always choose platinum or a white gold alloy whose colour I'm happy with sans plating. There are several that are white enough to present as "white" without plating.

Platium is actually more malleable and more susceptible to (Vickers) denting/scratching than alloyed 14k/18k WG. 14k/18k WG is more brittle, and less prone to inelastical deformation. What does this mean for you?
It means that
1. If you bang your ring and a prong shifts slightly, a platinum prong is more likely to shift with the impact and continue to cradle the diamond. A gold prong is more likely to try and "snap back" into place - a good thing for small bumps (because ultimately accumulation of all those deformations causes rings to go out of round, causes prongs to go out of shape and cease to hold their stones), but a bad thing when the impact is severe enough to cause the prong to break (especially in a shared-prong type setting wherein if you lose one prong you've lost much of both stones' support)
2. Platinum scratches more easily, but polishing those scratches out will lead to far less metal loss.

In all honesty your jewellers are right - shared prong settings with larger stones are always going to need more babying, and are always going to pose greater risks. Some jewellers are more conservative than others in determining what is or is not "a safe design to sell", some benches are more talented than others and can make a "safer somewhat-unsafe design".

Go with platinum.
Go with a jeweller who doesn't fear to sell you this setting (he's optimistic, or he's got a good bench, or both).
Insure the piece and prepare to lose and replace stone(s) at some point down the road.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Re: Platinum vs White Gold claws for shared setting 5 stone

Platinum is always my first choice for white metal for the reasons Yssie mentioned.

The preferred platinum alloys that are harder and more scratch resistant are:

90% platinum and 10% iridium

95% platinum and 5% ruthenium

Request those. If you don't, it will be made of the more common 95%plat/5% iridium which is softer and will scratch more easily.

I take it you are really asking what to make the setting out of, because you don't make the claws/prongs out of a different metal than the rest of the ring in a shared prong band.

 

[PintoBean]

Re: Platinum vs White Gold claws for shared setting 5 stone

When I ordered my YG solitaire from BGD, the options were 14K YG band with 14K WG prongs or 18K YG band with platinum prongs.

what karat YG will the band be?

 

[Wombats]

Re: Platinum vs White Gold claws for shared setting 5 stone

The layer of rhodium applied is microns thick - not nearly thick enough to minimize appearance of scratches or provide extra scratch-resistance. That said, a piece will often be polished prior to plating, which does remove surface scratches, so the whole process of rhodium-plating may indeed lead to seeing that "new shiny!!" look more often if you're a frequent-plater (in general, that is - in this particular case noone's going to recommend polishing shared prongs regularly )

Personally I despise rhodium - why cover a precious metal? - so I'll always choose platinum or a white gold alloy whose colour I'm happy with sans plating. There are several that are white enough to present as "white" without plating.

Platium is actually more malleable and more susceptible to (Vickers) denting/scratching than alloyed 14k/18k WG. 14k/18k WG is more brittle, and less prone to inelastical deformation. What does this mean for you?
It means that
1. If you bang your ring and a prong shifts slightly, a platinum prong is more likely to shift with the impact and continue to cradle the diamond. A gold prong is more likely to try and "snap back" into place - a good thing for small bumps (because ultimately accumulation of all those deformations causes rings to go out of round, causes prongs to go out of shape and cease to hold their stones), but a bad thing when the impact is severe enough to cause the prong to break (especially in a shared-prong type setting wherein if you lose one prong you've lost much of both stones' support)
2. Platinum scratches more easily, but polishing those scratches out will lead to far less metal loss.

In all honesty your jewellers are right - shared prong settings with larger stones are always going to need more babying, and are always going to pose greater risks. Some jewellers are more conservative than others in determining what is or is not "a safe design to sell", some benches are more talented than others and can make a "safer somewhat-unsafe design".

Go with platinum.
Go with a jeweller who doesn't fear to sell you this setting (he's optimistic, or he's got a good bench, or both).
Insure the piece and prepare to lose and replace stone(s) at some point down the road.

Diamondseeker, thanks so much for your comments, what do you mean when you say you don't make the claws in a shared prong setting out of a different metal to the band?

We were planning a 18ct YG band with either 18ct WG or platinum claws.

Cheers



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[Wombats]

Re: Platinum vs White Gold claws for shared setting 5 stone

Sorry, I quoted the wrong post above.

Thanks also yssie for your comments.

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[MissGotRocks]

Re: Platinum vs White Gold claws for shared setting 5 stone

I have a five stone band from Memoire with .40 stones. The shank of the ring is 18 kt. yellow gold but the setting and prongs for the diamonds is done in platinum. I've worn the ring every day for the past ten years with no problem with the stones in the setting.

 

[Wombats]

Re: Platinum vs White Gold claws for shared setting 5 stone

Thank you. I think we will go with the YG band and platinum claws. Appreciate your help.

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