When looking for a trio ring set, the first choice to make is between White Gold and Yellow Gold. Everyone knows about yellow gold, but not as many people are familiar with the concept of white gold, which has been gaining popularity and recognition in recent times. Gold, when naturally mined and extracted has the traditional metallic yellow color. This image of gold as yellow comes from classic depictions of gold as yellow in classic movies and images. When one thinks of mining for gold and gold nuggets, it is the classic yellow colored gold that comes to mind. White gold is made of the same materials as yellow gold, but is mixed with different metals to give it the silver color. 14 karat mens white gold wedding rings and bands have exactly the same amount of pure gold as a yellow gold ring, at 58.3%. A piece of jewelry will never be pure gold because pure gold is too delicate and soft for manufacturing.
Gold karated grade is used to express the proportion of gold in an alloy or the quality of a gold alloy. Fine gold (pure) is 24 karat. The key to understanding gold karat is the karat value over 24. An example are 14-karat mens white gold wedding rings. It is 14/24, which equals 58.3% gold and 41.7% alloy. In most engagement rings the stamp in the ring is 14k or some times 583. Both of those stamps mean the wedding ring is 14 karat gold. So the only pure gold is 24 karat gold which is sometimes called 999 gold. Solid Gold: What does the term solid 14k gold mean? Some engagement ring are advertise as sold 14k gold which means the ring is made of 14 karat gold not just plated with gold. A plated piece of jewelry is a thin layer of gold over a base or non gold metal. Some plating markings are to look like real solid gold like 14k HGE. HGE means hydrostatic gold electroplating.
Plated gold is measured in how many molecules of gold are around the ring. In other words, a plated piece of jewelry has very little gold. Some times engagement rings are stamped 14KP. The 14KP is a marking for plum gold which is a true mix of 14 karat gold. Some governments allow 13.5k to be stamped 14k so the 14KP tells the consumer this is a true 14 karat mix. White Gold: Can there be other colors of gold engagement rings? Yes, Gold is yellow metal but adding copper to gold makes it redder and adding silver, zinc and any other metal makes gold paler. The white color is achieved by a careful choice of the alloying metals, which bleach the deep yellow of pure gold. It is interesting to note that white gold for mens white gold wedding bands was originally developed in the 1920′s as a substitute for platinum. Nowadays, they are jewelry metals in their own right and currently very fashionable and desirable. White gold is available up to 21 karats. Most engagement rings are 14k or 18k. White gold is often used to enhance diamonds and other gemstones. White gold bridal jewelry is increasingly popular.
This precious metal is basically a mixture of gold and one other metal – silver or nickel or palladium. Rhodium is also added to this mixture in order to give white gold its distinctive shiny, silver color. Gold needs to be mixed with these other metals in order to make the piece of jewelry more durable. Gold is soft and can be bent out of shape easily, so it is a good idea to mix these metals along with the gold. Plus, in the case of white gold, it also imparts the distinctive color, as mentioned earlier. Generally people plate gold with palladium as silver is quite a soft metal and a lot of people have allergic reactions to nickel. Another advantage of this special blend is that, if your jewelry starts changing its color, then you can easily reverse the process by re-plating your jewelry with rhodium. This fixes the color and makes it sparkly silver again.