White gold or Rhodium plated confusion or deception
Ed. note; This is an interesting 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 :-)
My son just bought a "white gold" engagement ring. After just 3 weeks it started to change to yellow. My reading tells me that there is a white gold alloy, and a rhodium dipped (plated) white gold. Is this true? If so, how does the public know what they are buying? Can they both be sold as "white gold"?
Ronald Anderson- Hicksville, New York
Rhodium plating is brilliantly, dazzlingly, reflective and diamond-like -- there is no other material in the world like it. White gold is a mix of yellow gold plus other metals that bleach it whiter, and it is soft and somewhat dull. With just a few minutes of experience and looking at samples you'll never mistake rhodium plating for unplated. Our FAQ is a good summary of why you would want one or the other.
But here's the problem in brief: besides rhodium plating being of highly varying quality, it should be applied only to high quality, very white, white gold. Then, when the plating starts to wear thin there will be little contrast. But today it is applied to white golds that are far too yellow, sometimes even to yellow gold.
Unfortunately, the law apparently does not regulate rhodium plating standards, nor the color of the underlying gold, nor does it require any labeling of rhodium plated jewelry.
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 Ted Mooney, P.E. RET finishing.com Brick, New Jersey |
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my inquiry. I truly appreciate your courtesy in replying!
Ronald Anderson- Hicksville NY USA
October 24, 2008
When a jeweler recoats a yellowish-tinted white gold ring in Rhodium, do all of the diamonds have to come out of the setting before it can be "re-rhodiumed?" What about if it is coated in Platinum before it is re-rhodiumed? I guess I may be paranoid, but I don't want my diamonds changed out. And does coating it in Platinum first really provide that much more wear, and therefore less Rhodium recoatings?
Emily Lusk- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Hi Emily. The diamonds do not have to be removed. Sorry, I am not personally familiar with platinum plating under the rhodium.
Regards,
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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET finishing.com Brick, New Jersey |
January 6, 2009
I have a ring that was my grandmothers but it's yellow gold which I don't wear so I brought it to the jewelers to see if there could be something either overlayed or even to change out the three small stones into a different setting of white gold. They recommended rhodium plating and explained I'd need to redo this up to a couple times a year depending on how often I wore the ring. Was there a better alternative to the rhodium plating if it wears so easily?
Heidi Gorecki- Troy, NY, USA
Hi, Heidi. Rhodium is the best plating, but plating is very thin and rings suffer a great deal of wear. If you wear it rarely and the plating is done well, it will last a fair while. If you wear it every day, even twice a year replating may not be enough.
Regards,
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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET finishing.com Brick, New Jersey |
February 17, 2012
Q. Dear Finishing.com,
The situation is that I may be forced to buy a white gold ring (versus some other metal) for my significant other, and the potential lack of quality irritates me to no end. So barring my attempts to convince her of something else... I have 2 main questions.
1. How does an average consumer evaluate a white gold rhodium plated ring to see if it is a quality product? While it seems like the standards are pretty clear about what is a quality product (per your site) it seems that the consumer has to rely on assurances rather than inspection, to see that they have what they are lead to believe they have.
For instance is there a method to evaluate the type of white gold (nickel mixed etc.) it the ring is finished and plated?
Or is there a reliable way to see how it was cast etc. to see if the plating or finishing will come off quickly?
Or is there a good way to see the thickness of the plating?
2. If you receive/must buy a suspect quality ring is there a good way to either mitigate the wear or fix it?
For instance if I was going to re-plate it with a better than new thickness and quality rhodium plate, when should I do it (when it starts to wear?), can I do it at the first instance (to avoid grief), and what should I expect out of the process. Or is this an idiotic idea?
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Please help, I potentially suffering for "fashion" and isn't in my nature, but I would rather not disappoint her. I would ask about a specific brand, but then I don't want to irk you. Thank you for your time. - Chicago, Illinois, USA 
February 20, 2012
Hi Carl. While I may not be able to exactly answer any of your questions, I can recapitulate the dozens of threads on this subject in a way that may be helpful. There is such a thing as white gold that is white enough that it does not "require" plating, such as Stuller X1 white gold. I put the word "require" in quotes because such things are still in the eye of the beholder. The very finest, whitest, white gold you could ever mix will still not have the "bling" of rhodium plating. Regards,
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