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A look at the jewelry stores around the city, brings different styles of jewelry to the sight that covers a wide range of tastes. Although some styles may not not satisfy your taste, the same variation indicates a great change in the jewelry industry compared to a few decades ago.
Besides various designs we see in jewelry stores these days, the new pieces of jewelry come in different colors since the most people’s taste has undergone a serious change so that they prefer rose gold, white gold, and yellow gold side by side with each other. In this article, we plan to talk about white gold and the differences between white and yellow gold.
What is White Gold?
You may have heard words like «Gold Mine», «Gold Stone», and «Gold Element» or have seen them before. Gold, however, is yellow in all these cases. In other words, yellow gold is naturally found in gold mines. Gold is found at different purity levels in the nature and the 24K gold is the purest form.
However, the process of coloring and changing this type of gold to other colors which are of course very popular these days, is what happens at jewelry workshops. However, changing the color of pure gold and turning it onto white gold is different from other types of coloring.
Choosing the right color jewelry that matches your skin, depends on several factors which have been already discussed in an article, titled as «The Appropriate Jewelry Color for the Skin». We suggest you don’t miss reading it.
How to Make White Gold
With regard to the fact that white gold can’t be found in the nature and it should be made chemically, it is now possible to change the color of yellow gold to a variety of colors. To make yellow gold, an alloy will be formed based on 24K gold that contains some other elements as well.
As a result it may be surprising to know the gold found in pieces of jewelry on the market is not exactly the same as the gold extracted from mines. Reading our article, titled as«What is Gold? A Study of Five Features of Goldwill help you learn more about the structure and components of gold and jewelry.
White Gold Alloys
the alloy is not formed by fixed components and adding each element will add new features to the whole alloy as well. What can be guessed based on the white color of gold is that the elements needed for making white gold must be white as well, which includes elements like palladium, nickel, zinc, cobalt, and gallium.
What matters very much in changing the yellow gold to white gold is the change in the gold purity and thus the change in the gold Karat. Adding other metals to the alloy, will result in lowering the amount of gold in the whole alloy but it will also cause a change in the alloy color. As a result, together with the change in the gold color, the Karat will change as well.
White Gold Composition
It was said so far that the white gold is not an element found in the nature; in contrast, it is an alloy made at the cost of reducing the gold Karat. Yellow gold, on the other hand is very soft and vulnerable. As a result, we can add strong metals to this alloy that can add more strength to yellow gold when facing hard blows. These metals are as follows:
Nickel
Silver
Palladium
Copper
platinum
Nickel in Gold
Combining gold with any of these metals has its own advantages and disadvantages. As an example, since nickel is a malleable metal, it can improve gold vulnerability and make it strong. On the other hand, it reacts to outer elements such as water or oxygen very fast. As a result, it is possible to see skin allergic reactions after the rhodium layer is removed.
As a result, it is much better to take advantage of other metals instead of it. Many jewelers and gold smiths suggest that using nickel as a gold alloy component is less harmful when it is used for producing pieces like brooches.
Palladium in Gold
palladium is another malleable metal but doesn’t lead to allergic skin reactions. The metal has a much less reactivity and won’t react in normal temperature. It is also resistant to stains and scratches. Palladium is used for its bright silver color.
It is rarer than gold and platinum, and is thus more expensive than gold. Using palladium in this combination will double the brightness of gold and modifies it for producing jewelry.
What Is White Gold Cover?
After combining yellow gold with one of these metals, there will be a cover of gold added to the piece. White gold is usually covered with rhodium. The rhodium cover helps the piece look white and bright.
Rhodium has distinguishing features among which, one can mention the high resistance of this metal against chemical reactions. With regard to the high reactivity of gold, rhodium will prevent gold oxidation.
Another point about rhodium is that despite nickel that oxides very fast when facing air or water, rhodium is resistant to external factors and won’t cause skin irritations.
White and Yellow Gold Differences
After getting to know more about the structure of white gold, you may wonder about the differences between white and yellow gold. In the following, we will discuss four main differences between the two types.
The first difference between white and yellow gold refers to their different colors. According to what was already said, yellow gold is the 24 Karat gold that is soft and thus is not malleable. As a result, resistant metals are added to that which not only make it malleable, but they also make it bright.
The second difference between white and yellow gold lies in their Karat values. White gold is made as a result of adding some metals to yellow gold that will modify its weak points, but this addition will also reduce the white gold Karat level. In other words, pure yellow gold of 24 Karat level is changed to white 18 Karat white gold which though less pure, is more appropriate for producing jewelry.
The third difference between white and yellow gold is about strength and resistance. Yellow gold is opt to hurt when facing scratches, which can be mentioned as the second important advantage of changing yellow gold to white gold. Thus, Platinum, palladium, silver, nickel and copper make white gold much stronger than yellow gold. Furthermore, one shouldn’t disregard the role of rhodium in higher resistance of the white gold.
The fourth difference which is even more important than the three previous ones, is about the remarkable vulnerability of yellow gold compared to white gold. With regard to the fact that yellow gold is more vulnerable than white gold, it needs more careful maintenance compared to white gold. But as the time passes the rhodium layer will go away and the piece may need to be plated again.
In yellow gold plating, on the other hand, the pieces are polished instead, where a layer is removed from the surface of the pieces. This is exactly opposite of what happens for white gold, where a layer of rhodium is added to the pieces. In other word, if polishing is repeated several times, the gold weight will be slightly reduced.
The Difference Between White Gold and Silver
White gold and silver look the same in the first place. However, it is clear that white gold is more valuable than silver. It means that although white gold is not made of pure gold, it is still more valuable than silver.
Furthermore, silver is a pure element that can be found in the nature with 100% purity. On the other hand, white gold is an alloy made at companies and workshops and will be 75% pure at best. With regard to the fact that white gold is an alloy which doesn’t have a purity level of 100%, it might have some elements in its structure that can cause skin allergies. This problem, however, does not exist in case of silver.
When physical damages like scratches or sudden blows happen, white gold is even more resistant than gold which is mainly because of the protective rhodium layer. The same rhodium layer will also prevent oxidation while silver is not as resistant against it.
Steel and White Gold Differences
You may have heard the term steel alloy or stainless steel. Just like white gold, steel is an alloy made of iron, chrome and sometimes nickel. So steel is as impure as the white gold and has other components beside iron. When iron and chrome are combined with oxygen, chrome oxide covers the surface of steel which makes steel even stronger.
However, one of the differences between white gold and steel may be the gradual discoloration of steel, that doesn’t happen to white gold.
The second difference between steel and white gold lies in the greater strength of steel when facing damages and blows, which is actually because steel is more malleable than white gold.
How to Identify Gold
So far, we have talked about metals like silver, steel, and platinum that look similar to gold, but are not gold really. However,the question is that if you have a piece, for example a ring, are there any ways to identify whether it is gold or not? In previous EG articles, we have already discussed domestic methods for distinguishing gold, and in the following we will introduce a few simple ways too.
The first way is to drag the piece on ceramic. If the piece leaves a trace on ceramic, it is not white gold for sure.
The second method of identifying white gold is that it wont be absorbed by magnets. So if you can absorb the piece with a magnet, it is either iron or steel.
Conclusion
In this EG article, we discussed white gold and after mentioning the difference between white gold and yellow gold, we introduced different combinations. We mentioned the difference between white gold and other metals such as silver and steel which are used for producing jewelry. Finally, we mentioned the best way for distinguishing white gold from other metals used for producing jewelry. We suggest that you not miss the chance of visiting beautiful pieces of gold at EG gold and jewelry store.
