The History of White Gold Rings?
The jewelry world today is much more different than what it was even as far back as 15 years ago. If you take it back even further the changes are more visible. Since the days when gold was first used for adorning purposes among men and women, this precious metal of high value became the standard among precious metals. Gold is an attractive and highly beautiful metal, that not only attracted the eye of the jewelry wearer, but has also attracted the interest of investors.
Up until around the late 1800s only yellow gold was used for jewelry such as necklaces, rings, and bracelets. As time progressed other discoveries of precious metals came forth. One of these was the discovery of platinum which is a naturally white metal that looks just like silver except it is highly much more durable. Although individuals were wearing silver jewelry as well during this time, with the discovery of this rare precious metal known as platinum, many among the high class begin to wear white jewelry even more because they wanted to have a piece of this new, rare, and expensive precious metal.
In the early 1900s many could not afford to buy rings or any other type of jewelry made of platinum other than the wealthy. Experimentation the metal that was already known among the peoples which was gold, began to arise and soon it was discovered that white gold could be produced out of yellow gold. The reason for this is because gold is actually made up off several color alloys, including pink, blue, black, green and of course white. The white alloy part of gold was extracted and mixed with other white metals such as platinum, nickel, palladium, and silver. The mixture of these metals make the white gold a bit more stronger. Once a ring is made out of this “white gold” it is then plated with rhodium to give it a more of a white look and shine.
White gold rings are some of the most beautiful rings today. The advantages of rings made out of this metal, lie in the fact that they are much more affordable, and they are much more abundant in comparison to platinum or palladium. The main disadvantage of white gold rings is mainly in the fact that since white gold is not a naturally white metal, the rhodium plating begins to wear off overtime causing the ring to look a bit yellowish in color and a high loss of shine. To avoid this it is recommended that you take your ring in to a professional jeweler at least once every year to get it re-plated.
Tags: Tags: gold, platinum, Rhodium, silver, white gold, white gold rings
