White gold

Jewelry Discussion
21

Dear Deewo, I live and learn. Sorry to hear about your nickel
allergy, but appreciate the advice of personal experience. I
made my wife’s engagement and wedding rings 35 years ago, both
shanks in 18ct nickel white gold and never a problem. Life sure
is mysterious. Kind regards, Rex from Oz

22

Hi Robert, I saw your post on white gold. I didn’t know you were
here. How have you been? As you might remember we cast in 18k
paladium white gold. It is quite easy to set stones in. Unlike
the 14k paladium white, it doesn’t even have a trace of nickle in
it. I understand that in Europe nickle in gold alloys is not
allowed. We cast the 18k in high temp investment. Have you
noticed the price of paladium rise in the past few years? J.A

23 
  I make a white gold of 1/2 pure gold (9999) and 1/2 fine
silver.. It is a nice metal to work with.

Wasn’t that what the Greeks called electrum? A very old alloy,
and one I’ve always been curious about.

Janet Kofoed
fine handcrafted jewelry
http://www.voicenet.com/~kkofoed/jewelry.html

24

Hi John,

We use quite a few palladium based alloys in dentistry, and I
have heard that the price of palladium is so high because the
miners in Russia, which I understand supplies the lions share of
the palladium, are on strike and have been for several years now
and it has become a sellers market for the other suppliers.

Regards,

Skip

Skip Meister
@Skip_Meister
Orchid Jewelry Listserve Member
N.R.A. Endowment &
Certified Instructor
in all disciplines
Certified Illinois D.N.R.
Hunter Ed, Instructor
ICQ 37319071

25

Electrum was actually a pale yellow gold and silver alloy but
you are right that is was used by the Greeks and the Romans.

Regards Neil George

26 
   I make a white gold of 1/2 pure gold (9999) and 1/2 fine
silver.. It is a nice metal to work with.

It would be. Very soft. This alloy, though it will be nearly
white in color, is not actually what is referred to as a white
gold. The alloys we normally call white golds usually contain NO
silver at all. In nickle white golds, it’s replaced by nickel,
with then added copper and zinc. In palladium white golds, it’s
usually just gold and palladium. For your alloy, treat it like
the yellow golds, or like a silver alloy. The “white golds” that
I referred to, especially in the bit about quenching on when a
little cool, and then in alcohol, referred primarily to nickel
white golds, (though the quench info applies as well to red/rose
gold (gold/copper) alloys). In comparison with the nickel or
palladium white golds, you’ll find your alloy is still quite
yellowish, and it’s softness is probably too soft for really
secure stone setting, especially diamonds in, for example,
channels. Because silver and gold are completely intersoluable,
you cannot age harden it at all, though work hardening is, of
course, possible.

   But a few times I did see cracks starting on the edges and
had to be very careful not to let them run rampant.

That’s true of any ingot. Roll it far enough and edges will
start to crack. Pure gold, or very high carat gold can be rolled
without that happening, as can fine silver if you’ve got a good
pour with little dissolved oxygen. So can pure platinum and some
of the platinum alloys. But in general, alloys with work harden
to any appreciable degree won’t allow you to roll forever
without annealing. Even your butter-soft 12K gold/silver alloy
won’t do that. If cracks form before you expected them, you may
have a bad pour or a defect in the ingot.

  I realize from your last posting that I quenched it in water
as no one told me different all these years...(Yes  I will
change that to alcohol and wait for the red to go away)

Water is fine for your gold/silver alloy.

   Is the crystaline structure the spidery web marks on the
silver??

If you anneal your metal way too hot, and then bend it, you’ll
get an “orange peel” or leathery look that sort of reflects the
crystal structure. But generally, to see it, you need some sort
of gentle etchant to etch the surface. Sometimes, a cooling
button, or the top of an ingot, will crystalize slowly enough
that you can see the exposed actual crystal shapes, often in the
hollow shrinkage void in the center of the button or top of the
ingot. Seeing that with platinum is easy. It does it often.
Gold and silver alloys are harder to bring it out. Not quite
sure what sort of spidery web marks you refer to. That sounds
more like the uneven fire scale or marks left from fluxes, or
heat induced oxidation trying to make it through your flux…

Peter Rowe

27

I was surprised to find out at recently that there is in fact
silver in palladium white gold as well as zinc. At least this is
true of the palladium white gold offered by Hoover and Strong
Michelle

Sumiche Handwrought Jewelry
Creating what you want in gold, platinum and silver
http://www.efn.org/~sumiche

28

Have you tried an oil quench for annealing white gold. It offers
a slower cooling curve than water and works for hardening some
tool steels and it’s not as flammable as alcohol.Just a thought,
I’ve been quenching white gold in water after a little wait with
workable results, but maybe I’ll try these quenches. BTW, I
don’t know why I got this mail as I’m off the list for the
summer.
j

29

yes white gold can tend to have a yellowish tinge, this is due to the
amount of pure gold in the alloy. Is the pair of rings made in 18ct or
14ct white gold? If it is fourteen carat it is most proberly made with
a nickel white gold alloy whch is much cheaper thatn the 18ct
palladium variety of alloys. The majority of nickel alloys nneed to be
plated because of their yellowish tinge, especially in the high gold
content alloys [14ct and 18ct]. Rhodium plating is usually used to
give a platinum look coating over the white gold which enhances the
whiteness, although if the rings are bought back to the supplier of
the rings for rhodium palating there shoulnt be a charge and the
plating should last longer than six months depending on how much it is
worn. On the other hand there is the more expensive palladium alloys
which have a beautiful grey colour naturally, this alloy is usually
14ct or more oftenly 18ct. If you want a precious white metal that
doesnt need rhodium plating I would suggest to buy platinum rings, at
a cost, but only one wedding band is bought in a lifetime. From
Andreos Saliente, and experienced Jeweller and metallurgist. Please
reply , my email is @andreos_spangyloos

30

When a catalog, ad, etc says “white gold”, should I assume it is
nickel, not palladium? I’ve thought about trying some, but Rio, for
example, doesn’t specify, and I worry about selling something as
gold, and having customers get nickel-allergy problems. Any input on
this would be a help! --Noel

31 
    When a catalog, ad, etc says "white gold", should I assume it
is nickel, not palladium? I've thought about trying some, but Rio,
for example, doesn't specify, and I worry about selling something
as gold, and having customers get nickel-allergy problems. Any
input on this would be a help!  --Noel

Hi Noel; You can almost bet it will be a nickel alloy, since
palladium has gotten quite expensive. If they were selling a
palladium alloy, I would think they’d be offering a nickel alloy also
and specifying the difference in price.

David L. Huffman

32 
    When a catalog, ad, etc says "white gold", should I assume it
is nickel, not palladium? I've thought about trying some, but Rio,
for example, doesn't specify, and I worry about selling something
as gold, and having customers get nickel-allergy problems. Any
input on this would be a help!  --Noel

In the USA, I think that’s fair to say. I believe that the EU has,
or will be removing nickel white gold from the trade.

I’ve used 18k Palladium white gold with very good results. I got
mine from www.imperialproducts.com.

Palladium is cheap these days, so the price of the alloy should have
come down quite a bit.

  • darcy
33

Dear Orchid Fellows, First of all my best wishes and best regards to
all of you.

Would any one of you please explain to me

1 What is the WHITE GOLD?

2 How many different metals are mixed together to form the WHITE
GOLD?

3 What is the exact ratio of different metals that are mixed
togather to form the WHITE GOLD?

4 Is is true that WHITE GOLD is neither Platium nor Pladium?

I would really appreciate and be thankful to you if you explain to
me in deatail all about the WHITE GOLD.

Best regards,
JODAT KAMRAN

34

White gold is an alloy of gold that has enough Nickel, or Palladium
to whiten it. Platinum, Manganese, and chrome can also whiten the
gold, but are not in common use, at least not here in the USA.

Of course the Karat you want determines the amount of gold, the rest
is up to you and your supplier. Many blends of differing proportions
are used to make white gold. Try our web site for a lot of info on
gold alloys

Daniel Ballard
WWW.Pmwest.us

35

Jodat, White gold is an alloy, (mixture), of pure gold with other
metals that produce a “white” colored gold. 18K White Gold is most
commonly a mixture of 75% Gold, and 25% Platinum or Paladium. It also
can be a mixture of 75% Gold, 10% Paladium, 10% Nickel & 5% Zinc.

14K White Gold is commonly a mixture of 58.33% Gold, 23.5% Copper,
12.2% Nickel & 5.97% Zinc.

This is from Jewelry Concepts & Technology by Oppi
Untracht.

Of course there are other formulas that will produce a white colored
gold.

Joel
Joel Schwalb
@Joel_Schwalb
www.schwalbstudio.com