Plating rhodium on white gold

Letter 1237

Ed. note; This is an interesting but terribly long thread, and only one of many. Before you get too confused, you might want to start with our FAQ on Rhodium Plating and White Gold to get an overall understanding :-)

Can you plate white gold with platinum or silver? if so, would it rub off as quick as rhodium?

thanks,

Natalie Masters
- Manchester, UK

Gold is yellow metal in nature. we use nickel and palladium in the alloys to turn it white with bleaching effect. silver is white in nature so it can give its colour to gold and turn it a bit white. More the content of nickel, palladium and silver, more the metal be white. but the surface it not perfectly white and shiny. So rhodium is deposited on it by electroplating process.

Rhodium is most brightest metal on this planet. But is grayish in nature. it reflects the base metal colour so the metal appears white and bright after rhodium platting.

You can get white, brown and yellow sports on your metal surface if the rhodium process is not done carefully or the metal surface is not cleaned properly before rhodium.

since rhodium is brightest metal, even a small scratches on your piece will be clearly visible after rhodium. so the piece should be nicely buffed before rhodium.

while plating, the person should take care of several things like, the voltage and current at which the piece is dipped in the rhodium bath, the time for which the piece is kept in the bath, the bath temperature, the piece should be cleaned properly, after cleaning its rinsed with DM water and then before entering to the rhodium bath, its dipped in acid to make the piece neutral (i.e. pH 7). If all these instructions are followed properly, you can get a perfect, clean, and spotless rhodium plating on your metal.

Shah Shankhesh R.
- Mumbai, Maharashtra, INDIA

I have recently read that the jewellery industry in the UK has been aware of this problem and has recently graded white gold on a 32 point system and then sub divided into 3 categories so the manufacturer or the retailer buying white gold bullion or finished products will know what grade and colour they are purchasing even if already plated . This grading has been done through the gold council and assay office .
Grade 1 - no need for plating
Grade 2 - option to plate
Grade 3 - requires plating

Brian Fairhurst
- Northwich, England

I think the main point that is rarely recognized in all of this is: My grandmother and mother have white gold rings which have never needed plating. Why is that? It angers me to hear "white gold is made of yellow gold, which is yellow in color....bla bla bla... so deal with it." Again, why do we all have relatives with white gold jewelry that has never yellowed and never been plated? Anyway, yes, the same thing happed to my wife and I. It is just disheartening to find out that you now have to bring in your engagement ring and wedding bands for plating every 6 months.... What? So how are we going to pass my wife's ring on to our daughter? I guess with a maintenance plan for say.... 100+ years.

Brian Chirrick
- Placentia, CA, USA

It is indeed disheartening, Brian, and you are right about how big a problem it is. I've learned a lot in the last few years --

Gold is yellow. There are no isotopes that are white; that is scientific fact.

To make jewelry, jewelers mix gold with other metals because pure 24 karat gold is far too soft to be usable in jewelry. If the other metals they mix it with are chiefly nickel or palladium, the resulting mix will be "whitish". How white depends on which metals they mix in, and in what proportion. A "whiteness scale" is mentioned a few postings above.

Your relatives have rings where the right metal (probably palladium) was mixed in, and in the right proportion, that the ring came out satisfactorily white for them, and it stayed that color over the decades.

Although your relatives' rings are indeed white, they are not the brilliant shiny highly polished, diamond-like, chrome-plated-like look of what you see in jewelry stores today. That is the look of rhodium, not the look of white gold. Whether consumer-driven or jeweler-driven, tastes changed to where people now expect white gold jewelry to be that brilliant rhodium plated color -- perhaps because it makes the diamonds look bigger. So it became nearly universal to rhodium plate the jewelry, and you won't see much unplated white gold jewelry; and if you do, you will find it quite "dull" compared to the glittery rhodium plated stuff.

My assumption is that what happened is the jewelry industry started saying to themselves "we're going to rhodium plate it anyway, why spend the extra money for palladium in the mix", so they started accepting white gold of lower and lower "whiteness" as the base, worrying about it less and less. It seems that some jewelry stores in the middle aisles of malls may even be rhodium plating regular yellow gold.

Some people love the glistening rhodium plated look so much that they accept frequent replating as the cost of getting it. I'm not one of them. Like you, I believe heirloom jewelry should not be plated. But I accept that that means it will be "white" but it will not be dazzling because a mix of yellow gold and other metals, no matter how well done, just can never be the brilliant dazzling color of rhodium. Hope it helps.

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

I am in college and my boyfriend just proposed to me and the ring already has the white gold peeling off and it looks horrendous and we have our engagement party coming up. can i get it replated and about how much does this cost?

Nancy Balian
student - Wood-Ridge NJ USA

Peeling!? The plating is for some reason defective, Nancy. It might eventually wear through, but it should never peel.

Other threads in this forum indicate a replating cost of about $30 to $50 at jewelry stores, although there are plating shops which have expensive instrumentation and which specialize in plating high quality jewelry, and they might charge twice that.

Ted Mooney finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

Hello. I got engaged last December, and my ring is white gold. I work at a bank and deal with change a lot so it got pretty scratched up on the bottom, and I noticed that yellowish tint. I did my research and understand fully the reasoning for this. So I went to have my ring replated. It was very inexpensive (~$40), and looked like NEW! The problem was that after about 2 months the same thing was starting to happen. I haven't gotten it replated again though. I was wondering if there was an amount of rhodium plating I could request to be done at one time (like thickness of it), to help keep it the way it is supposed to look for longer. Anybody know??

Crystal Trask
buyer - East Branch, New York

My wedding set is of white gold. I take my set in annually to have the rhodium placing done. From what I've researched and from what I've been told, white gold loses it's "white gold" color due to various reasons...chemical reactions to skin, chemical reactions to lotions, soaps, etc...also from salt water and just age. I fish and camp often so my rings get dull quite fast. If you purchase your rings with a warranty, the warranty coverage should cover the rhodium plating on your ring. The rhodium plating also help get rid of scratches. I just picked up my set today, takes about a week or so and about $35.00 per ring. They come back looking as if your rings are spanking new. I highly recommend getting the process done annually.

Gwendolyn
- Richmond, VA

white gold sucks..after all the money I've paid for my rings I am almost sick that it looks so dingy after a few weeks..I have been told so many things- ohhh its having a reaction to your finger! Oh, all metals tarnish..! Blah blah blah..its all a bunch of crap. Then, the other day I went to get the rhodium plating done, and they told me that i could not because it will damage my ring!! Meanwhile, I have been sending it away to get the plating done for three years..

Go for platinum..spend the money..or, just get yellow gold..save the hassle..

Anastasia Beaverhausen
buyer - Omaha, Nebraska, USA

I've been reading some of the comments. White gold does not exist. Gold is yellow, no other color. It's Rhodium plated. You can go to the jewelry store and get it rhodium plated every year, for about $20-$40.
The yellowish of ring is the gold and nothing else.

Nathalie Torres
- Winnipeg, Canada

Not quite true, Natalie. Because this issue is very confusing spread across hundreds of postings, we've summarized it all for easy reading as our FAQ on Rhodium Plating and White Gold.

Ted Mooney finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

Hi Ted,

Ok, I read the FAQ, if I understood right, gold is yellow, to make it white gold they add other metals to make it white....am I correct on this? Now the rhodium plating is a metal just to make the surface of the band brighter/blink blink! LOL

If correct, the ring is just high maintenance. Regardless it's still gold and it isn't worth any less than the yellow gold ring.

Nathalie Torres
- Winnipeg, Canada

Hi, Elaine. The biggest problem, as mentioned in the FAQS, is that the contrast between yellow gold and rhodium is so drastic that your ring becomes unsatisfactory looking very quickly. While I haven't heard of rings becoming brittle because of too frequent replating, I suppose it's possible if you are doing it every couple of months.

The price of rhodium is presently off the charts (literally! see www.kitco.com/scripts/hist_charts/yearly_graphs.cgi). It was $7000 per ounce in January and is $9,000 per ounce now. Although little is needed, I don't think you will be able to afford replating every 2 months forever, not to mention the inconvenience. Please consider letting your yellow gold ring be yellow.

Regards,

Ted Mooney finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

WAS WONDERING, COULD I GET YELLOW GOLD AND DIAMOND EARRINGS RHODIUM PLATED? I LOVE THE EARRINGS, BUT HAVE STARTED WEARING WHITE METALS EXCLUSIVELY.

JUDY MCCOLGAN
- OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA USA

Hi, Judy. It's only a matter of how long the rhodium plating will last before wearing off considering the strong contrast. It's not a good idea for a ring, but for earrings that you wear only occasionally, and that don't get friction like a ring, it will probably be fine.

Regards,

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

Unfortunately I could not read all the comments on this topic, I just got too tired to read of the same problem over and over again. But please read the following.
I am a Jeweler and I personally replate jewellery for a living.
The truth is that plating Rhodium over white gold is a jewellery making standard. Depending on the kind of alloys, the color may vary on white gold. What consumers need to know is that Rhodium is really a PLATING and it DOES wear out. Depending on how often jewellery are used and on the person, as well as on the quality of the plating and solution used. Some jewellery are hollow and the jeweler doesn't want to risk to contaminate a $450 solution, so he uses older solution.
Consumers also need to understand that a piece of jewellery CANNOT stay shiny forever. It's normal when the surface gets scratches over time.
There is no way to keep jewellery shiny forever. They need to be cleaned and polished regularly.
Now, if you really don't want you jewellery to discolor ask you jeweler to make your jewellery using SUPER WHITE K19 WHITE GOLD. This alloy does not require Rhodium plating and will stay white forever. Furthermore, it will REQUIRE polishing and cleaning regularly.

Pierre P. Jewellery
- Montreal

We are a manufacturing jeweler located in South Africa.

We often manufacture wedding bands for couples. Typically, mostly because the engagement ring is 18ct white gold, the lady's ring is made in the same metal.

Gents are generally rougher with their hands and so we mostly manufacture their rings in 9ct white gold which is more durable. The lower gold content (37.5%) + the other white alloys combine to give a whiter finish without the need for rhodium plating.

This is the main reason why gents bands do not tend to go yellow.

Ant O'B
Jewellery manufacturer - Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa

I've just read this thread with fascination. I have an 18ct white gold wedding ring and engagement ring. I've been married 4 years. 10 months ago I took the wedding ring in to the jeweler to be replated. This was the second time I had had it replated in the 3 years I had been wearing it (not the once every 5 they had originally advocated). Since I got it back last November, I literally only ever wear it to go to the office, I've been so careful with it, never wear it in bed, in the shower, to do DIY or gardening but not because of the 'turning yellow' problem cited here, but because despite the fact I hardly wear it, it is getting dinged and dented like you have never seen. Some of the scratches are so big you can fit a small fingernail down them. My engagement ring which I wear at the same time does not have this type of problem at all. I took it back to the jeweler at the weekend and he agreed that it looked more like a wedding ring that had been worn for 20 years, not 4 and was astonished when I related how careful I am with it. He started in about how I might have some sort of skin allergy to white gold but I find it hard to understand how a skin allergy, if it is such a thing, might be gouging scratches and dents in my wedding ring. It has now been sent back to the manufacturers for some kind of 'deep' re-rhodium plating which is going to take up to 4 weeks with a long explanation of what the problem is, but I'm not convinced that this is going to solve the problem. A wedding ring should surely last for life but it this carries on we'll be buying a new one within a few years. Does anyone have any experience of this type of problem?

Kirsty Storr
- Norwich, England

Hi all,

Been reading through the thread and found some more info on another site which some of you may find useful.

Read on:

"White Gold and Rhodium Plating.

White Gold Grading

White gold is graded in colour from 1 to 4 depending on the quality of the colour and how often rhodium plating would need to be applied. 1 is the best possible colour, grade 4 is considered unacceptable as the colour is more of a yellow and relies heavily on costly rhodium plating in order to maintain the colour. Typically grade 3 and 4 qualities of white gold are generally used in many mass produced articles, as raw material costs are much lower, and the items are generally made to a price point rather than to a quality. Grade 3 and 4 colours do generate a lot of complaints from customers in the jewellery industry due to the problems associated with evident colour change once the rhodium wears off.

Category Colour Value Colour Description Frequency of Rhodium Plating
Grade 1 Less than 19 Good White Does not need to be rhodium plated for long periods
Grade 2 19 to 24.5 Reasonable White Option to rhodium plate occasionally
Grade 3 24.5 to 32 Poor White Frequent rhodium plating needed
Grade 4 Above 32 Not Acceptable True colour will be exposed very quickly in wear.

For reference rhodium plating is considered brilliant white and has a colour value of 7

All of the 9ct white gold and 18ct white gold wedding rings that we sell on this website are made using only Grade 1 white gold as we believe in only selling quality wedding rings that will give you years of hassle free wear. All of the jewellery on our websites also conform to the European Nickel Directive.

[several paragraphs which are highly repetitive of previous postings were deleted by editor]

Buying Advice

Palladium rich white gold is by far the best colour of white gold available at this time. It does however carry a premium and will be more expensive than cheaper alloyed white gold and is also more expensive than yellow gold which doesn't have such an expensive alloy added. The price difference between yellow gold and palladium rich white gold is evident on our website.

The increased cost of palladium rich white gold is offset by less frequent rhodium plating and thus less unnecessary polishing, but more importantly customer satisfaction is greatly increased as you will not suffer the same level of discoloration experienced with cheaper alloys.

I would always advise with items of white gold jewellery that are in constant use that you ask the sales person to confirm that the article is either "palladium rich" or is made from "Grade 1 Alloys" If they are unable to confirm this then I would assume that they are below grade 1."

Howard Emmerson
- South Yorkshire, England