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Vanilla Gold

#1

I have a customer who has asked for vanilla gold. I have not heard
the term used before. I wanted to ask the collective wisdom here.
Have you heard of this? Can you tell everyone here more about it? My
customer describes it as…

new alloy, vanilla gold, and that it was not palladium or
rhodium, that it was something new that would never yellow.
However, after hearing about this, I have been trying to find
out anything I can about it. So far, one other goldsmith has
said that it has no nickel in it and that it does contain some
palladium but a lot less and is a very soft alloy so that its
easy to do intricate work but scratches and dents really
easily. I wish to find out as much about this as I can. I feel
it is best to be educated about it

Thank you.
Franklin

#2

Franklin,

We use an alloy called Vanilla White from Argen out in California.
It is a 14k alloy, very white in color, eliminating the need for
rhodium plating. It’s ingredients are gold, copper, nickel, zinc, and
and silicon. It is a very hard alloy, but very workable.

I don’t believe this is probably the alloy you’re looking for, but
if you search, it’s one you’ll probably come across.

David Lee
david lee jeweler
http://www.davidleejeweler.com

#3 
We use an alloy called Vanilla White from Argen out in California.
It is a 14k alloy, very white in color, eliminating the need for
rhodium plating.

This strikes me as an example of the difficulty, one might even say
stupidity, of “colorful” marketing terms. I would have thought a
white called vanilla would be a slightly yellow-tinged color,
perhaps an attempt to interest buyers in the color “white” gold is
when it isn’t really white! You know-- like vanilla ice cream!

If it were a way to market pale yellow gold, it might have been
interesting, since I’ve never heard of there being any interest in
that and it could add to the possibilities of color use if it
succeeded.

My interest is totally academic-- I haven’t ever used white gold so
far (except for the clasp of my now-famous bracelet, at Jim
Binnion’s suggestion). If I decide I want to use pale yellow
(“champagne”?) gold, og course, I certainly will do so, regardless.

Noel