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Customer Service
E-mail Us
Or Call
775-822-8815
10 - 6 EST Time
Mon - Fri |
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The Jewelry Hut Jewelry Education
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Precious Metal Basics
Superior Gold from the Start
The Jewelry Hut offers gold in many different colors and purities in 14 Karats Gold or 18 Karats Gold or Platinum. Gold Beginnings
For thousands of years, people have treasured gold as rare and precious. Today, it remains as popular as ever and is more sought after than ever before. In its pure state, gold is too soft for practical use. In order to make it into durable jewelry, it is alloyed with other metals. The Jewelry Hut fine jewelry manufacturers begin with pure gold and add other elements to create jewelry that they craft from raw elements to final finished ring or bands. Purity
Every piece of jewelry, including wedding bands and rings, has a purity mark stamped inside the shank. Purity is defined by the Karat mark inside the ring. A ring marked 24 Karat, would 100% gold, but too soft to b practical piece of jewelry.
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24 Karat
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18 Karat
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14 Karat
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10 Karat
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100%
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75%
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58.50%
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41.30%
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Purity affects the price of the ring: the higher the purity, the more precious the metal and therefore the more expensive the ring. Color
The alloys that are mixed with gold give it different mechanical properties making the metal harder, stronger, and malleable (ductile). It also affects the color of the metal. Pure (or “fine” or 24 Karat) gold has a lovely warm rich yellow color that is highly prized. It is actually an orange shade of yellow.
Almost all gold colors are based on gold-silver-copper alloys, usually with small additions of other metals these minor additions may be deoxidizers such as zinc and silicon, or grain refiners such as iridium or cobalt. Other metals such as nickel or palladium may also color or strengthen the metal.
With metals, we only have the choice of mixing yellow gold with red copper or white/gray (all other metals). So for the Karat golds, we can maintain yellow at the medium and low karats by balancing the amount of copper and silver alloyed into the gold. If we add more copper than silver we get redder shades. Adding more silver or metals other than copper gives us paler colors, including white.
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Karats
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% Gold
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% Silver
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% Copper
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Color
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24 Karats
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100%
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18 Karats
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Green-Yellow
Pale Yellow
Yellow
Pink
Red
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14 Karats
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10 Karats
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41.6%
41.6%
41.6%
41.6%
41.6%
41.6%
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Extraordinary White gold
Because gold, by its nature, is yellow in color, it is necessary to add an element that whitens or bleaches the natural yellow color to white. Creating white gold is always a challenge to overcome the yellowness of gold. Only two alloys can achieve this effect, nickel and palladium.
The Jewelry Hut fine Jewelry manufacturers uses each of these metals in special alloys to give you, our valued customers, the finest jewelry. Where White Gold Started
White gold was created as a cost effective substitute for platinum nearly a century ago. It received little attention until the 1940’s when platinum was unavailable. Original white gold alloys were nickel based and reasonably white, but today there are serious issues with white gold that can affects customer satisfaction. Nickels and White Gold
Nickel is one of the elements that is used as a bleaching alloy to make white gold and to give it hardness. In fact, nickel is an alloy used in many metals. Unfortunately, some people are sensitive to nickel and have an allergic reaction to it. Even though this is an acquired sensitivity some people are bothered by contact with a person’s skin and perspiration initiates the reaction.
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