Rhodium/Platinum Plating Over Sterling Silver

[CannonFire]

First off, I would like to say hello, and that this place seems to be a wealth of information. So thank you to all who have made it such.

I have read through multiple threads in regards to the rhodium & platinum plating and it has answered many of my qustions. So far I''ve gathered that (and please feel free to correct me if I am wrong):

- R/P plating increases the strength of the jewelery
- R/P plating is (relatively) tarnish resistant

I do still have a few questions:
1) Does the R/P plating make the jewelery look different than just being a sterling silver ring setting?
2) My significant other and I both have sensitive skin and can only wear silver or white gold; yellow gold or any poor quality jewerly will make us break out in rashes. I know that this isn''t a very rare issue, I just wanted to know if the R/P plating would be likely to cause a breakout as well?

 

[stone-cold11]

Don''t think so, plating will never increase the physical properties of the base material.

Most Pt alloys will not tarnish anyway.

Depends on the WG/Gold alloy in your country. Most people is the opposite as in they are more likely to be allergic to WG than Gold. That said, Pt is about as non-allergenic a metal as there is.

 

[CannonFire]

Thank you very much. The "allergic" type of reaction is what I was most concerned about, but that''s good to know about it being a low occurance.

 

[BeachRunner]

Date: 11/23/2009 9:08:05 PM
Author:CannonFire
First off, I would like to say hello, and that this place seems to be a wealth of information. So thank you to all who have made it such.


I have read through multiple threads in regards to the rhodium & platinum plating and it has answered many of my qustions. So far I''ve gathered that (and please feel free to correct me if I am wrong):


- R/P plating increases the strength of the jewelery

- R/P plating is (relatively) tarnish resistant


I do still have a few questions:

1) Does the R/P plating make the jewelery look different than just being a sterling silver ring setting?

2) My significant other and I both have sensitive skin and can only wear silver or white gold; yellow gold or any poor quality jewerly will make us break out in rashes. I know that this isn''t a very rare issue, I just wanted to know if the R/P plating would be likely to cause a breakout as well?

From my knowledge, white gold is gold plus white metal alloys. For example, an 18K white gold ring contains 75% gold and 25% metal alloy. Most people are allergic to the white metal alloys such as nickel. Since this process doesn''t get the gold fully silver, rhodium plating is applied to the ring for the white finish. Rhodium does wear and your ring will need replated after wear.

 

[CannonFire]

From my knowledge, white gold is gold plus white metal alloys. For example, an 18K white gold ring contains 75% gold and 25% metal alloy. Most people are allergic to the white metal alloys such as nickel. Since this process doesn''t get the gold fully silver, rhodium plating is applied to the ring for the white finish. Rhodium does wear and your ring will need replated after wear.

The R/P plating would be on a Sterling Silver ring setting (in regards to the rings I''m looking at), not on a gold or white gold ring. I was interested if the color or appearance of the R/P would be different to the appearance of just a sterling silver ring setting.

Is the R/P plating durable and slow to wear, or is this something that would need to be re-done often (read: yearly)?

 

[BeachRunner]

Is the R/P plating durable and slow to wear, or is this something that would need to be re-done often (read: yearly)?

It all depends on a person''s body chemistry; some people may need to re-plate their rings every year, some people may re-plate every 5 years.

 

[CannonFire]

Sounds good, thank you.

 

[neatfreak]

That''s really odd that you can only wear silver or white gold. Usually those are the metals that people have allergies to because of the many alloys in them...

 

[CannonFire]

I''m aware of how strange it sounds, but interestingly enough my significant other is the same way. I first noticed the reaction when I was very young and my parents got me a yellow gold necklace from the family jewler, and more recently a couple years ago from a yellow gold watch. However neither white gold nor sterling silver jewlery gives me the same reaction.

When I had discussed this issue with my family jewler he said that he had a few customers with the same issue over his 25 year career, but it was few and far between.