hi everyone, with great interest i’ve been reading this yarn re:
white 18k porosity. some people say palladium white gold is
buttery soft. i agree. some people say the nickel white gold
gets firescale. this is essentially correct but it is easier to
prevent and clean off (in my mind) than when it happens to
yellow. also nickel white gold is essential to use when strength
is a concern. what my point is is that all thes alloys have
there uses in structuring our jewelry correctly. some one said
that 18k white nickel didn’t bend- well it won’t unless it is
annealed correctly.nickel really does age and work harden more
easily than copper, silver.palladium white gold makes a more
homogenous alloy than nickel. but because of its relatively high
melting temp whoever is alloying the pure palladium with the
pure gold should be sure the palladium gets melted b4 the gold
gets put in, I’m not sure if there is any type of eutectic thing
happening between these metals as with copper-silver-gold. i
know for sure when i size certain 14k white rings that appear a
really nice white, i’ll sand them and polish them and experience
undercutting. it seems that there are ‘chunks’ of harder metal
within the host metal. it’s not the rhodium plating because
these chunks go throughout. pretty weird! Skip, is this what you
meant when you said palladium white gold had irregular grain
size? tho i’m only guessing that the chunks are unmixed
palladium. anyway, all these alloys have there uses and are not
going to go away whether i like it or not. i strive to work them
correctly when i see them, but usually i won’t go looking for
trouble. sincerely,
geo fox