Technically speaking, there is no such thing as white gold. Gold is a yellow in color but cannot be used in its pure form due to its extreme softness. Gold is mixed with other metals to harden it. Adding red metals like copper will make gold reddish, whereas adding white metals like nickel and palladium will lighten the color of gold and eventually render it white. White gold jewelry became popular in the 1920's and is used as a substitute for platinum mainly because it is much cheaper than platinum jewelry.
White gold jewelry is more often made of gold mixed with palladium rather than nickel. Many people may be allergic to nickel, especially women in their pregnancy. White gold jewelry is often plated with rhodium to improve its appearance. Rhodium had a high reflectivity and has good wear properties. The disadvantage of using palladium as a whitener in white gold jewelry is that it is quite expensive and has a high melting point. Other options for whiteners in making white gold jewelry are silver, platinum, chromium, cobalt, tin, zinc and indium. Silver could have been an ideal component having excellent working properties but regrettably it does not have a great bleaching effect. Copper is used to improve the ductility of the metal used in making white gold jewelry. Many new alloys have been introduced into the market. Most of these use manganese as a whitening agent.
White gold jewelry loses color with constant use over time. This is due to the rhodium plating wearing off. The white gold jewelry can easily be re-plated by a local jeweler. However, good quality white gold jewelry with good color doesn't need to be re-plated. It should live up to the consumer's expectations.
For more details and information on whit gold jewelry please visit our website India Handicraft Store.
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