when rhodium plating white gold...

[chickpea]

do the stones have to come out?

forgive me if this has been answered before (i''m sure it has, but i couldn''t seem to find anything when searching)

 

[mrssalvo]

nope...the plating doesn't attach to the diamonds...

 

[chickpea]

good to know. thanks, mrssalvo, you''re a font of information!

 

[oldminer]

You wouldn''t believe how many diamonds are held in mostly by the caked up dirt some people let collect under them instead of keeping their jewelry clean. Besides the dirt, any item that is to be rhodium plated needs to be very clean. A plater attempts to prevent contamination of the plating solution by steam cleaning and ultrasonic cleaning of jewelry before it is plated. These two cleaning systems tend to make some diamonds or colored stones fall out.

Sometimes caustic cleaners are also used but they play no part in stones coming out.. Rhodium is more than 4 times the price of platinum, nearly $7,000 per ounce, so keeping the solution viable is highly important.

Dirty rhodium plating looks spotty, dark or gray. Clean rhodium is very chrome like and has a very smooth finish with a high polish.

 

[Diamond*Dana]

Date: 1/11/2008 12:02:40 PM
Author: oldminer
You wouldn''t believe how many diamonds are held in mostly by the caked up dirt some people let collect under them instead of keeping their jewelry clean. Besides the dirt, any item that is to be rhodium plated needs to be very clean. A plater attempts to prevent contamination of the plating solution by steam cleaning and ultrasonic cleaning of jewelry before it is plated. These two cleaning systems tend to make some diamonds or colored stones fall out.

Sometimes caustic cleaners are also used but they play no part in stones coming out.. Rhodium is more than 4 times the price of platinum, nearly $7,000 per ounce, so keeping the solution viable is highly important.

Dirty rhodium plating looks spotty, dark or gray. Clean rhodium is very chrome like and has a very smooth finish with a high polish.

Ugh...true, but so gross

...and sad

!

 

[chickpea]

thanks for the detailed post, oldminer.

as for the dirt situation... yikes!

i posted the question because i''m having a bezel-set band custom made in white gold, and wondered about having it replated in the future. i don''t plan to let it get TOO dirty though, so hopefully stones falling out won''t be an issue!