Letter 12798

Rhodium plating over yellow gold 

My jeweler has suggested that he coat a 14K yellow gold ring with rhodium to give me the white gold appearance that I want. Are there any foreseeable problems with this? It is a custom-made ring and he is trying to avoid the cost of making a new one in white gold.

Jaynie Herger
- Vernon, BC, Canada

It is perhaps possible for this project to be successful, but it is very unlikely that it will be. The explanation can be found in the responses to letter 1237.

Ted Mooney, P.E.  finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

In response to why white gold turns yellowish the answer is quite simple: there is no such thing as white gold.
Gold is gold in color to make it white alloys are added.
Hence the yellow tint. Rhodium plating solves the problem but will wear off in time and need to be replated

Carmine Girone
retired jeweler - Pelzer, South Carolina

Thanks for the effort to simplify things, Carmine, but I think you have over simplified them.

Yes, pure 24 karat gold is yellow. But when the white metals and bleaching metals are added, the resultant 12 karat or 14 karat alloy is "whitish". The over simplification is that some such alloys remain rather strongly yellow whereas others are white enough to be left unplated.

One need only look at rings from 30, 40, and more years ago to see that most were sufficiently white that rhodium plating was not necessary. Of course they were certainly not as white and brilliant as rhodium plating. This is not totally a subjective matter either; rather there are both ASTM and jewelry association whiteness scales for white gold.

We have a "Rhodium Plating & White Gold" FAQ which the readers may wish to view to quickly understand these issues.

Ted Mooney finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

Jaynie, I'm interested in hearing whether you decided to try this and, if so, how it turned out. I'm about to buy a yellow gold diamond ring not knowing if my girlfriend prefers white and am thinking about the plating option if it turns out she does.

Ted, I have read through letter 1237. Do you think success is unlikely because yellow gold's color will unavoidably show through the rhodium or because the abundance of poor quality plating will not be good enough to cover the gold's color? In other words, would the project be a likely success if one was to go to a top-notch plating expert?

Rod Griffs
- New York, New York

Hi, Rod. The thicker the better and the higher quality the better. The yellow substrate will not 'show through' as plated; rather it will show through as the plating starts to wear through. Rings suffer a great deal of wear and even the thickest rhodium is measured in millionths of an inch thick.

Regards,

Ted Mooney finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

Hello, my fiance is wanting to use my grandmothers ring to propose... My grandma's ring is Yellow Gold. Scott (my fiance) knows I'm not a "yellow gold" type of gal, so he's wanting to take the diamonds out and place them in silver. This is obviously NOT okay with me, as it is my grandma's ring, but I would be okay with this "rhodium" plating that was described, or white gold plating it! HELP!! Anyone have suggestions, and then not only that... but somewhere that actually can DO this service well.

Ali M.
research - Carmel, Indiana

Do not get rhodium over a ring. My husband and I got a ring that was yellow gold and wanted it to match my wedding ring which was white gold. We got it plated with Rhodium not even a month later it started to fade and look really tacky!!! We paid so much for our rings, and his looks fake! I'm in the process right now trying to get a different ring for him (one that is WHITE gold to start with) or I hope they will make a whole new ring.

Sabrina Palm
- Lawton, Oklahoma