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Question
#44297. Kind Heart
asks:
Is 'white gold' really gold?
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sequoianoir
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All that glitters is not gold...not pure gold at least. In its pure state, gold is too soft to be worn as jewellery, so it is usually mixed with other metals, such as silver, copper, nickel and zinc, to make it harder. A mixture of metals is called an alloy. This process gives it durability and strength.
The make up of gold through the use of different alloys also affects color. Today gold is not just yellow. It can be white, rose, and even other weird tints like green.
Yellow Gold may contain Copper & Silver
White Gold usually contains Nickel, Zinc, Silver & Platinum
Green Gold is made by adding Silver, Copper & Zinc
Rose Gold contains Copper
Feb 13 04, 7:37 PM
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lothruin
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And for the record, all gold which claims to be any Karat, as in 14K or 18K absolutely contains some gold. (Providing they aren't lying to you.) It doesn't matter what color the metal is, if it is 10K it contains 10 out of 24 parts pure gold. The other 14K are of whatever metal the gold was alloyed with to make its particular color, as are listed in DB's post. Similarly, 14K is 14/24 parts of pure gold. Obviously, 24K gold is pure gold. Pure gold is always a very VERY bright yellow color.
This is why 10K jewelry is cheaper than 14K or 18K, in any of the colors. With higher karats, you get more precious metal, but lower durability. Some jewelers, especially in India and other countries in that area, do use 22K-24K gold in their jewelry, but the western standard is 14K.
Feb 13 04, 8:56 PM
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Brinjal
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Due to the high yellow gold in 18K white gold it can often have a yellowish tinge and therefore is usually rhodium (platinium) plated to give it that lovely silver colour.
Feb 14 04, 3:52 AM
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gmackematix
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I'm not doubting anyone here but when did they start spelling "carat" with a K? Was it deliberately changed to distinguish it from the weight measure of the same name?
Feb 15 04, 1:28 AM
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sequoianoir
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CARAT, unit of mass used for diamonds and other precious stones. The word carat comes from the Greek keration, a carob bean; carob beans were used as standards of weight and length in ancient Greece in much the same way barleycorns were used in old England. Traditionally the carat was equal to 4 grains. The definition of the grain differed from one country to another, but typically it was about 50 milligrams and thus the carat was about 200 milligrams. In the U. S. and Britian, the diamond carat was formerly defined by law to be 3.2 troy grains, which is about 207 milligrams. Jewelers everywhere now use a metric carat defined in 1907 to be exactly 200 milligrams.
In Britain, the spelling "carat" is also used for the unit of gold purity known in America as the karat.
KARAT, a traditional measure of proportion equal to 1/24, used by U.S. jewelers to express the purity of gold alloys. Thus "14-karat gold" is legally required to be at least 14/24, or 58.3%, gold. In Britain the unit is spelled carat, just like the weight unit for diamonds and other precious stones. American jewelers spell the unit of gold purity with the "k" and the weight unit with the "c" in order to distinguish more clearly between them. (In German, both units are spelled with the "k".)
Feb 15 04, 11:29 AM
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