Yellow Gold changed to White??

[bugaboo]

Sorry to sound so dumb, but if I have a yellow gold ring, is it possible to change it to white at all???

 

[AdaBeta27]

Rhodium plate, but it wears off. Not recemmended for daily wear but might be OK for a special occasions ring.

Depending how it''s made, it could be re-shanked w/ a white shank. That might not be cost effective. Post a pic & somebody will advise you better.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Yep, the plating can rub or get scratched off and you'll see the yellow gold showing through in that spot.

 

[luckystar112]

Interesting thread! I always thought that white gold was just yellow gold with the rhodium plating, which was why you could see yellow when the plating started to wear out. Is white gold a whole different alloy?

 

[oldminer]

White gold is much less yellow, yellow gold. It is due to the choice of alloys used which lessens the yellow appearance. There are white golds today which really are not yellow at all and stay white without rhodium coverup plating.

 

[WorkingHardforSmallRewards]

man I totally missunderstood your question. I think that other people missunderstood as well. Yellow gold will not change white naturally, however you should be able to have it rhodium plated, but it will wear off on the bottoms and sides and I imagine that the actual yellow gold will create a pretty apparant two-tone affect, but it might work...?


and yes, white gold is a different alloy. It is X%gold (the % is determined by what kt your gold is, the higher the kt the larger %) that gold, is of course yellow, as we have all know, pure gold is yellow. so X% is gold, what the remaining metal content is is based on the desired color of the final product. If you want rose gold, then they will mix it with alloys that bring out a subtle pink hue when mixed with gold. In this case the less kt gold there is in the ring (meaning there is less of the yellow color and more of the pink color) obviously the pinker it will be, the same idea holds true with white gold, if you want a whiter color they will mix it with other metals and that will give it a whiter appearance, but because the gold is white there is still a yellow tinge to it (less in lower kt gold of coruse, and some alloys are whiter than others) hence the rhodium plating. and if you want yellow gold they use different metals that help to emphasize the yellow gold color, thus as in each case, higher the kt the more vivid and yellow the gold will be because there is more of it.

which leads to the conclusion that no, there is no reason why yellow gold should turn white.

Of course the whole reason for creating the alloys instead of using pure gold is to make it harder.

 

[lyra]

This isn''t a stupid question at all. I''ve thought about the implications too, but probably the constant (every few months or less?) upkeep would end up bugging me, and I don''t think it''s reversible without strong polishing or something. PS brings up all sorts of ideas!

 

[oldminer]

"Of course the whole reason for creating the alloys instead of using pure gold is to make it harder. "

What? Gold is a valuable because it is a reasonably scarce metal. The alloying of gold allows for less precious metal use and wider availability to the mass of people. Pure gold is too soft for most of the styles one would want today and the alloying has allowed a huge industry to flourish. The kings of old used alloys to be able to produce more "gold" coinage while not leaving their treasury empty of gold. 9 Karat gold in Britain allowed the working man and woman to afford a small trinket in their attempt to follow the grand fashions of the times where the very rich enjoyed 18 karat gold jewelry.

Adjusting the karat of gold had something to do with hardness, but far more to do with historical, technological, fashion and economic forces.

I the alchemists had succeeded in creating gold from less precious metals the scarcity of gold wouldn''t be so much an issue and no one would want less than 18 karat if the cost was low enough. Some 18 and 19 karat white gold is VERY hard metal. It is a function sometimes of the alloy type and method of manufacture rather than how much alloy.

 

[Maisie]

I had my original yellow gold e-ring rhodium plated. You can see the results (and how I scratched it on the first day!) here....

https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/rhodium-plated-yellow-gold-ring.66313/

 

[jayreneepea]

I used to rhodium my original set and it worked great. Sure, it wore off in time, but it wasn''t some big huge glaringly different color and it was on the palm side. It''s a commitment if you want to keep them white, I think I used to do it every 6-12 months but apparently I don''t wear off white gold as quickly as some here do.