Learn about White Gold

What are they?
What are 'white gold's'? Are they a special form of gold? Do they contain gold? These are typical questions often asked of us. Well, they are not a special form of gold (which is why you cannot get 24 carat white gold). Actually, they are true carat gold's, just like yellow or red carat gold jewelry. They are gold alloys that look white rather than yellow. The white color is achieved by careful choice of the alloying metals, which bleach the deep yellow of pure gold.

It is interesting to note that white gold's for Jewelry were originally developed in the 1920's as a substitute for platinum. Nowadays, they are a Jewelry metal in their own right and currently very fashionable and desirable, particularly among the younger age groups. White gold's are available up to 21 carat. They are often used to enhance diamonds and other gemstones. White gold bridal Jewelry is increasingly popular.

Making gold white

Making gold white is similar to mixing colors in paints. Adding a red metal (copper) will tend to make gold red and adding a white metal tends to make gold paler and eventually white. Thus, all other alloying metals to gold, apart from copper, will tend to whiten the color and so it is possible to make carat gold's that are a reasonable white color.

while additions of any white metal to gold will tend to bleach it's color, in practice, nickel and palladium (and platinum) are strong 'bleachers ' of gold, silver and zinc are moderate bleachers and all others are moderate to weak in effect.

This has given rise, historically, to 2 basic classes of white gold's - the Nickel whites and the Palladium whites. The nickel-whites tend to have a colder white color, whereas the palladium whites have a warmer color. Good nickel whites tend to be hard and difficult to process. Good palladium whites tend to be soft, easy to process (but lost wax casting is more difficult) but are much more expensive, because of the price of palladium. Consequently, many commercial white alloys are thrifted in nickel or palladium and contain some copper; hence, color is compromised. At the 8-10 carat (33.3 - 41.6% gold) level, gold-silver alloys are quite white, ductile although soft and are used for Jewelry purposes.

White gold Jewelry is often plated with rhodium. There is, as yet, no legal or industry-accepted definition of what constitutes a 'white' color in gold's and hence the trade description of 'white gold' may not mean an alloy that is 'ice white' or 'detergent white'. For good technical and economic reasons, many commercial white gold's are not a good white color (usually a yellow-brownish tint) and are often rhodium-plated to improve appearance.

Rhodium is one of the platinum family of metals and has a high reflectivity and good metallic white color and is hard with good wear properties. A thin electroplated coating is often applied to white gold Jewelry to improve its white appearance.

This is legally allowed in many countries, including those with Hallmarking regulations. Such a coating, if not subjected to undue abrasion, should have a lifetime of, typically, 3 years before it wears through to reveal the gold alloy underneath.

For many consumers, the color of rhodium has become the norm for the color of white gold, because that is what they are used to seeing on Jewelry described as white gold!

The nickel skin allergy problem

Unfortunately, many people (around 12-15%), the female population especially, are allergic to nickel in contact with the skin and this gives rise to a red skin rash or irritation. This problem applies to costume/fashion Jewelry, white gold and steel Jewelry, zippers and fasteners and other body piercings.

Much Jewelry is now advertised as 'non-allergenic' or 'nickel-free'.

Alternative white gold's

As palladium white gold is more expensive, there is a demand for cheaper alternatives that are nickel-free. Many new, patented alloys are coming to market, most of which rely on manganese additions as the main whitener. Some are palladium-free and others are low palladium alloys. They tend to be hard and more difficult to process. Many of these alloys are not a good white color and require rhodium plating. They may suffer cracking and tarnishing problems too. Compositions of such alloys are not published.

Buying white gold Jewelry

As stated above, some white gold Jewelry sold may contain some nickel and still conform. Sensitized people may find that they react to such jewelry. Rhodium-plating should provide some limited protection, but remember electroplatings are often porous and will, in time, wear away!

White gold Jewelry wearers can be disappointed to discover that their Jewelry has gone off-white, even a yellow-brown tint, as the rhodium plating wears through (some cheaper Jewelry may well be distinctly yellow-brown in color).

There is currently no legal requirement in many countries for the retailer to tell purchasers if the Jewelry is rhodium-plated. This applies to some platinum Jewelry as well as white gold. If the Jewelry is rhodium-plated, then you cannot know how white (or not) is the gold alloy underneath. A good quality white gold, with good color, should not need to be rhodium-plated but may well be to conform to a consumer expectation.

If the rhodium plating does wear through, the Jewelry can be easily re-plated and the good color restored.

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