Platinum Versus White Gold (and a PS regarding Titanium)
Also
14k Yellow Gold Versus 18K/24K Yellow-Gold
Why is Platinum so very expensive:
Platinum is rare. Ten tons of platinum ore is required to process a single ounce of pure platinum. Platinum is very dense-60% more dense than Gold. A piece of jewelry made of Platinum is considerably heavier and stronger than its counterpart in Gold, therefore more expensive due to its bulk weight alone. The most important consideration is the labor factor in producing a finely finished piece of Platinum jewelry. Due to its density and unique working properties, it requires a highly skilled craftsman to create a quality piece of Platinum jewelry. The working environment must be absolutely pristine and free of other metal contaminants-requiring the Platinumsmith to maintain a separate set of tools exclusively devoted to Platinum jewelry.
What is the difference between White Gold and Yellow Gold?
To understand White Gold, one needs to understand Yellow Gold
Pure Yellow Gold (fine gold) is softer than pure silver, but harder than tin. Its beauty and luster are unmatched by any alloyed gold (pure gold mixed with other metals). The extreme malleability, ductility, and softness of pure gold make it practically useless for jewelry applications. It is just too soft!
The addition of alloying elements (other metals) to gold are used to increase the toughness and hardness of the metal. While almost any metal can be alloyed (melted) with gold, only certain metals will not dramatically change the color or make the metal brittle. The addition of the metal like Indium (great as an alloy with Platinum), for instance, turns gold into a purple color and gives resulting gold the workability of glass. Any pressure and it shatters.
Over time, certain percentages of gold have become legally recognized "karats." The karat indicates the amount of gold as a percentage of the total:
24 karat is 24/24's gold or 100% gold.
18 karat is 18/24's gold or 75% gold (25% of the other metals are non-gold)
14 karat is 14/24's gold or 58.33% gold. (41.67% of the other metals are non-gold)
In karated gold, there is a balance of the other metals in the non-gold percentage. These metals provide the various colors and hardness of karated golds.
Typical alloying metals mixed with gold and their color visual effects are:
24 karat Gold has a stunning visual Gold effect of course
Mixing Gold with Copper causes a visual Reddening effect
Mixing Gold with Silver causes a visual Greening effect
Mixing Gold with Zinc causes a visual Bleaching effect of the gold
Mixing Gold with Nickel causes a visual Whitening effect
Mixing Gold with Palladium causes a visual Whitening effect
How do jewelers use the above metal alloys to obtain different visual Gold colors???
18k and 14k Yellow Gold is Gold alloyed with copper, silver, zinc
14k and 18k White Gold is Gold alloyed with copper, nickel, zinc
Red Gold (or Rose) is Gold alloyed with just copper
Green Gold (you hardly see it ever used) is Gold alloyed with just silver
Adjusting the proportions of coloring metal agents shown above provides the array of colors on the market.
So finally, what is the difference between 14k & 18k Yellow Gold and 14k & 18k White Gold???
Yellow Gold is alloyed with silver, while White Gold is alloyed with nickel. It is that simple.
So if someone ever tells you 14k White Gold and 14k Yellow Gold are different, they are correct to a point. They are different only in visual color and whether one of the additional metals alloyed with the Gold was silver or nickel. They are not different as to their 58.3% pure Gold content and they are not different as to their percentages of alloyed copper and zinc.
Short answer is:
Are Yellow Gold and White Gold different metals? NO!!
Are Yellow Gold and White Gold different Gold alloys? YES!!
Even though it is called ‘White Gold’, the alloyed metal has a slight yellowish tint. A jewelry item made of White Gold is often electroplated with a thin coating of Rhodium, which is a member of the Platinum family metals (to make it more white from its yellow).
There really is no distinct advantage in using White Gold versus Yellow Gold; it is a matter of personal 'metal' visual preference.
14k Yellow Gold Versus 18K/24K Yellow Gold
And
Scratching on the various Precious Metals
Scratches on 14k Gold versus 18k Gold?:
If you are torn between choosing 14K Yellow Gold versus 18k Yellow Gold, let us assist. Remember from above, 18 karat Gold is 18/24's gold or 75% gold with 25% of the other HARDER metals non-gold. While 14 karat Gold is 14/24's gold or 58.33% gold with 41.67% of the other HARDER metals non-gold.
The amount of other than gold, harder metals makes 14k gold slightly "harder" than 18k gold (resulting in 14k being a bit more scratch resistant than 18k, and 14k being extremely more scratch resistant than 24k gold).
Use your "lifestyle" as the comparison for your choice between 14k gold and 18k gold. If you plan on leaving your rings on for activities outside your workplace or home, then here is what we recommend. If your profession calls for working with your hands or if you lead an active lifestyle like working out, outdoor activities, sports, bike riding, gardening etc, etc, then we recommend 14k Gold. If you are going to remove your rings when working with your hands, go with 18k Gold. When in doubt, choose 14k Gold.
Scratches on Gold versus Platinum?:
When we talk about scratches on hand worn Platinum or Gold jewelry, we are not referring to large eye visible scratch marks (like a cat’s claws made on my mother’s favorite dress). Instead we are referring to hundreds of “micro-scratches”, no one of them visible to the eye, but in combination over time, all jewelry worn on the hand will eventually be covered in small “micro-scratches”, which will give a dull appearance.
Platinum, which is slightly more malleable, but more dense than Gold, will take on a frosted appearance. Platinum does not micro-scratch the same as Gold, but actually “furrows” instead. The furrowing effect pushes metal to the sides instead of removing material. Visualize the Red Sea parting or a farmer furrowing his field! On the other hand, when Gold is micro-scratched, the Gold metal is actually removed. Sometimes these micro scratches can leave white gold looking a bit yellowish.
Bringing Gold or Platinum back to "Like NEW" luster (eliminating any scratches from normal daily wear):
Because of the physical properties of Platinum, most minor 'dings' and scratches can be refinished to almost like-new through a process known as 'burnishing'. Burnishing involves a highly polished metal tool that literally pushes the ridges of a scratch back into the furrow-very little, if any, of the Platinum actually has been removed.
So the ease of bringing a Platinum ring back to original luster by a professional is a positive consideration versus White Gold.
Unlike a scratch sustained by a Gold mounting, where the metal is actually scraped away. In bringing Gold back to luster, metal must be added back to “fill” the scratches. Also, 99% of all good bench jewelers will recommend (when you bring in your white gold ring to be polished) electroplating again with a thin coating of Rhodium, which, as we mentioned, is a member of the Platinum family metals (to make it more white from its yellow).
You will need to have your white gold ring re-coated with Rhodium about once every 2 to three years to keep the white color.
Ironically, bottom line, it can cost more to bring a less expensive white gold ring back to luster, than a more expensive Platinum one, due to the additional metal to be added and the Rhodium being additionally applied as their last step.
Back to Chemistry 101
If you have a chance, take a look at a periodic table. Below you can see on this partial periodic table how close the relationship between the metal Platinum and the metal Rhodium. Rhodium is very white and adheres to Gold very well.
If only we had tools like the table on this site, a lot more would have made sense. They make it much easier to understand and compare one metal to another metal. If you go to their site, click on the element Platinum (Pt). Read some of the properties including the cost of obtaining Platinum from the earth. Then click on Rhodium (Rh). Read its properties to see how it is more like Platinum than Gold. Lastly click on Gold (Au). Comparing the three, you can learn a lot about jewelry metals. Also remember Palladium (Pd) is a source for some jewelry. You can see on the periodic table how it is in the same family.
Other Platinum Stuff
Allergic reactions
A former master jeweler of our used to say in his thirty years of jewelry experience, I have never encountered an individual that has had an allergic reaction to Platinum jewelry. Platinum is hypoallergenic; the remaining 5% in a 95% Platinum piece is either Iridium, Ruthenium or Cobalt.
Though rare, there can be allergic reactions from White Gold
Strength
Despite the mis-information White Gold is NOT stronger than Platinum. In fact for a center set diamond, we recommend a Platinum ProngSet over a White Gold ProngSet if there is a choice.
Combinations of 95% Platinum with 5% other various metals
Platinum is mixed with other metals for jewelry. Rather than take the time here, we have a lengthy discussion of this topic on our Understanding Bands educational page
The really really hard part to write
Sometimes a jeweler will steer a prospective customer towards white gold. Sometimes it is not for the right reasons in our opinion.
Jewelry businesses are somewhat like the automobile businesses. Let’s say you are set on purchasing a brand new vehicle.
When you visit to a new car dealership, you basically have two choices.
[1] You can sit down and pick out all the options and order exactly the car you wish.
The dealership can then order your car from their factory exactly as you have appointed it.
[2] Your second choice is selecting a new vehicle that is already sitting on their lot.
Your friendly salesperson will usually steer you towards a vehicle already on their lot. They will do this for several reasons. Dealers basically have a large financial loan agreement with their bank they call “floor planning”. It is like a Line of Credit.
The price/cost for each new vehicle sitting on their lot, has been already paid back by their bank to the car's manufacture . So each day the car is sitting there, with a the manufacturer's price to the dealer already paid back, but finance charges from the dealership's bank are accumulating daily on each vehicle financed on their "floor plan". Once they sell the vehicle, that sale goes against that vehicle’s “floor planning”. Any money over and above the money paid back to the manufacturer and the accumulated bank interest, is their profit.
If you order a brand new vehicle, of course they make a profit on your order. But your new order does not eliminate one of the vehicles still in their showroom accumulating bank interest. So they will tend to steer you towards the vehicle on the lot.
So how does a New Car Dealership compare to my Platinum or White gold ring?
A jeweler has a huge investment for their inventory on their premises of diamonds and rings crafted in precious metals like Gold and Platinum. Platinum is significantly more costly than the exact same ring style crafted in White Gold. So if given the choice, a jeweler will stock their inventory in White Gold rather than Platinum. The jeweler usually has a bank funding their inventory. Accumulating an inventory in Platinum versus White Gold could mean extra monthly interest charges in the thousands of dollars to a large jeweler.
So we have been told of numerous situations where a jeweler has sung the praises of the qualities of White Gold over Platinum. For the reasons communicated to us, our assumption has to be, that particular jeweler was steering the prospective customer towards white gold, because they had it already had the style in their inventory. Why do we assume that? Because in each of the cases communicated to us, the reasons given, as to why the prospective customer should pick White Gold versus Platinum, just were not factual.
Lastly
Bottom line both are good, but both require different steps to keep new looking over a lifetime. If your budget can afford Platinum, it is worth the extra money for a Platinum band that will be worn for a lifetime. It will be white forever.
PS: What about Titanium?????
Titanium We made a business decision in 2002 to not work with or craft jewelry utilizing Titanium. At that time, it was becoming a “hot” topic for wedding bands. We made that decision as it is so hard it can not be easily modified. After the initial purchase, a consumer will be hard pressed to make any modifications.
We were concerned that our customers would want modifications (such as a simple resizing in a few years for weight loss/gain or want engraving). Titanium is a terrific metal for the aircraft and space industry. In our opinion, it is an extremely poor choice for consumers for jewelry as it is almost impossible to repair or modify.
So we will not be able to assist you for any items manufactured using Titanium.
