Letter 15419

Rhodium plating [Nebraska] 

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 :-)

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I just want to express that I think that it is unjust and unbusiness like for a jeweler NOT to inform a costumer that their "white gold" is rhodium plated. The thing is - most jewelry salesman do not exactly know what their "white gold" is made of or in fact what their manufacturer uses in their "white gold". I know many people who have white gold rings in which have never yellowed in years. I have been to numerous jewelry stores and they have all stated that their "white gold" will never show any yellowing in time. Some have never even heard of something like this happening. Someone is misinforming these sales personnel.

I received a $6000 dollar "white gold" engagement ring and never thought I would encounter such problems with such an expensive ring. I had the ring 2 weeks and noticed a yellowing of my ring right after washing dishes. I immediately returned the ring and the salesman said it was the lights in the store. I knew he did not know that he was talking about. I talked to another associate and they said it need to be "re-rhodiumed". Then I felt as if my fiance had been taken advantage of. They sent it off and it looked wonderful and new. Then I got it sized about 2 weeks later and when I went to pick it up, it was as yellow as I have ever seen it. I can't believe the salesman didn't see that before he called me to tell me it was ready to be picked up. I have had the ring for 7 months and it has been re-rhodium plated 5 times. The last time I requested a heavy plating instead of their "flash plating" they do since I have heard that this may last a lot longer. It lasted a bit longer but not much. I am so outraged that I have been through so much problems with this ring.

The store calmed me by ordering a platinum ring that looks identical and charging an additional small price to exchange. It looks great but now I am hearing that platinum will scratch up very quickly. Is platinum all that harder? Am i going to be dissatisfied with platinum now too? How easy is it to polish the ring to it original shine after it scratches? How is a ring marked to ensure it is platinum? PLT ,PT. Is platinum the way to go? Nickel must be removed from the jewelry business for good.

Dina L [name deleted for privacy]
- Omaha, NE

I doubt that platinum will ever be a problem, Dina.

You are right from top to bottom. Some jewelers, whether it's due to duplicity or simple ignorance, are selling consumers $6000 rings that are a major problem quality-control wise, and which also cause the well known and long recognized disease of "nickel itch".

And to make it worse, then they often start in with this 'special sweat' nonsense, trying to make the wearer feel guilty for having some kind of shameful defect in their sweat glands that destroys heirloom jewelry :-)

Sometimes I have little sympathy for trial lawyers and consumers who want to sue at the drop of a hat, but not this time. Eventually a major jewelry manufacturer or distributor is going to make a lawyer rich with a class action suit over rhodium plated white gold, and they will richly deserve it. I still pass by jewelry counters full of rhodium plated white gold rings that are not identified as plated.

Ted Mooney, P.E.  finishing.com Brick, NJ

 

I am curious, Ted.... I have a "white gold" engagement and wedding band. I have worn the wedding band for 18 years and it hasn't changed color. It is whiter than yellow gold, but yellower than sterling silver. Does this mean that it probably *isn't* rhodium plated? I have never noticed an "itching" problem, but I am not sensitive to any metals that I know of. I even had a nickel/silver ring once and that caused no problems.

Does white gold get its "white" color from more nickel or chromium? What alloy is high-quality "white gold" supposed to be made of? Do they mix platinum in? My ring was designed locally and sent to a foundry that the jeweler normally used for all of his castings (lost wax process). I have been perfectly happy with it. Was white gold made differently 18 years ago? I suspect that it is nickel that they mixed into the gold, since the jeweler told me it would be harder than yellow gold.

Ronna Erickson
- Amherst, MA

I was totally ignorant about this subject until a couple of years ago, Ronna. I've read a great deal in the meanwhile.

In brief, gold is an element that is always yellow, there is no isotope which is white. White gold jewelry is an alloy made by mixing gold with other metals, most notably nickel or palladium because these have the ability to "bleach" it. The resultant color is whitish, but it can vary and there is a scale of whiteness. These days white gold is usually rhodium plated for the popular dazzlingly bright white look, and what probably happened was that the "we're going to plate it anyway" mentality let jewellers talk themselves into using white gold of lower whiteness than the old days.

The issues revolve around at least four different problems:

• The chief alloying metal in European rings is palladium, while in the USA it's nickel these days. That means palladium white gold doesn't cause nickel itch but nickel white gold does. Some say palladium golds are whiter, and some say old rings were palladium, but I can't say if these assertions are true, and it looks like there are nickel alloys that score well on the whiteness scale.
• Years ago rhodium was less expensive than gold; now it's 10x as expensive as gold. It's very difficult to plate rhodium thick, whereas jewelers use low quality, contaminated solutions and ultra low-tech equipment. So most rhodium plating is too thin for good wear, and also so porous that it does little towards abatement of nickel itch.
• Apparently some jewelers have also gotten into the mode of rhodium plating yellow gold rings as a quick solution to giving the customer the setting they want in the color they want. This can help the nickel itch issue because most yellow gold has no nickel in it; but on the other hand, because of the high contrast, wear is far more obvious than with white gold. Some people (count me in) feel it is deceitful to put rhodium plating on a yellow gold ring.
• Something that I did not realize until recently is that gold jewelry is very sensitive to harsh chemicals including bleach and hot tub additives like bromine. Contrary to what I assumed, rings must be removed before going into a swimming pool or hot tub because, while gold is highly resistant to chemicals, jewelry is not gold but an alloy of gold and other metals.

Our FAQ about white gold (http://www.finishing.com/faqs/whitegold.html) includes a lot of good responses from jewelers, plating engineers, and others.

Ted Mooney, P.E. 
finishing.com
Brick, NJ 

I have the same situation with my white gold rings. My rings are only 6 months old and the bottom of my rings are turning a little yellowish. I went to the jewelers and I questioned it and they told me that the rings have some nickel in them and maybe I was allergic to nickel. I found out I was allergic to nickel about a year ago when I had a crown put in and I was getting swollen gums and I had to replace my crown.

My question is, could this be the reason my rings are turning yellowish faster than what they should be? Also, is there anything I can take either a vitamin or anything to prevent it? Or I just really need to replace my bands with platinum.

Do you have any suggestions?

Adriana V [name deleted for privacy]
- Chicago, IL

Vitamins will not relieve a nickel allergy, but ingesting medicine would be the wrong answer even if it worked.

There really should not be nickel in new jewelry anyway as it has been banned in much of the world (not the USA), and a product which is widely recognized as being defective should not be sold. But here in the USA product design sometimes seems to be driven more by personal injury law rather than proactive innovation.

If the rhodium were thick enough, there would be no yellowing for a longer period and the leaching through of nickel would be somewhat reduced but not eliminated. The problem is not your 'nickel itch', and don't let a jeweler get away with claiming such. The problems are:

• there really should be no nickel in rings
• the ring material should be white, not yellowish
• a low quality rhodium plating job may be wearing through too quickly.

Ted Mooney, P.E. 
finishing.com
Brick, NJ 

I, too, am experiencing discoloration on my white gold ring band. I had my 18k white gold engagement ring resized. The Jeweler, who resized it, had informed me that it might be rhodium plated. The ring went into the jewelry shop in perfect condition. When I got it back I noticed that there was discoloration on the band. Tiny little white/copper colored dots have appeared all over the band but appear centralized around the area where the resizing was done. Are these dots due to the process used to resize the ring? Could the method used for resizing have damaged the rhodium thus leading to discoloration? According to the jeweler who resized the ring these dots are a manufacturer's defect. Is this true? I have only had the ring for 3 months. From what I have gathered from your site it should be a year before it has to be replated. Why would it tarnish so suddenly? Thank you for your help in this matter.

Regards,

Katherine T [name deleted for privacy]
- Montreal, Quebec, Canada

You are a customer who is easy to please, Katherine. All you are asking is that your ring survive a year or more between replating. I would be very unhappy if a ring lasted less than 5 years before needing work :-)

But you should not be having to try to figure out exactly what went wrong, and we probably can't do it from this distance. We can guess that the rhodium got burned off or worn off by the tooling or the ring was made bigger and the replacement material not plated--but that's all a guess. The point is that the ring is 3 months old and is now defective due to error on the supplier's fault or the resizer's fault. I would tell the resizer that he broke it and must fix it; he'll probably rhodium plate it.

Ted Mooney, P.E. 
finishing.com
Brick, NJ 

I'm trying to find some information on this, but all I seem to find is that platinum is supposed to resist most (if not all) kinds of yellowing or tarnishing.

Well ... I received my platinum engagement ring on New Year's Day. A week or so later, I noticed that the base of the prongs, where it connects to the band, has started to yellow. The ring is stamped PLAT (which I read means that it is at least 95% platinum), so I was dismayed that it started to discolor so quickly. The ring was custom-made by my fiance's family jewelers, and when we spoke to them over the phone (they are in Ohio, we're in California), the only explanation they could give was that it could be the solder used to connect the head to the band. They also suggested trying a little Tarn-X metal and diamond cleaner [link is to this product on Ebay] but that didn't do anything. I take the ring off when cleaning and washing dishes, but usually leave it on when I normally just wash my hands (with regular soap).

So now, it looks like our only option is to send the ring back and have them fix it (although I'm not quite sure how they're going to do that, without mildly recreating the ring). If anyone has any other suggestions -- or even guesses as to why this happened -- please let me know! I'd rather not part with my new ring! (I know, it's better to get it fixed now, but still, I'm sentimental.)

Help! And thanks ...

Maria V [name deleted for privacy]
- Orange, CA

I'm having the same problem with my Platinum ring. The solder area between the prong and the band is yellowish. I noticed the discoloration about 3 months after I bought it. Does anyone know why??

Phuoc Luu
- San Francisco, CA, USA

Ed. note: The following, from one of this site's supporting advertisers, goes a long way towards explaining the situation with white gold and rhodium plating. You may wish to contact them for further information, advice, and possible services on white gold and rhodium plating issues--

Can rhodium plating disappear on the whole ring when resized? I hope someone can explain the following to me.. I can't seem to find any information online...

I had two rings resized recently and to my amazment and anger, both rings had changed color!

Ring #1 has a white gold shaft but the "flower" design of the ring had a rose-gold rhodium plate finish on it to make it look like petals. When I received the ring, the rose-gold had disappeared and the white gold had shown through. How is this possible if the shank had to be made larger? The person I spoke to said it was due to the heat of the soldering. I can't see how the whole ring changed color.

Ring #2 has a yellow gold shaft but the "flower" design is white rhodium plated. The shank of the ring had to be made smaller. When I recieved the ring, ALL of the white plating disappeared and the yellow showed through.

Please explain this phenomenon! I never thought that ring resizing would completely take out rhodium plating.

Laura W [name deleted for privacy]
consumer - Glen Cove, NY, USA

I own a 9K white gold engagement and wedding ring. I have had it Rhodium plated within this month(September 2007) and have noticed a yellowing tinge to the bottom of my rings. I do try not too work too harshly with my rings butI have noticed some fine to medium scratches on the bottom and sides of my rings. If I have them replated, would the rhodium plating damage my rings in the long run? How often could I rhodium plate my rings without wearing off too much gold by the polishing/buffing process? Will the rhodium plating remove fine/medium scratches? Please help me, as I am very distressed and want to ensure that my rings are well cared for.

Inga G [name deleted for privacy]
Customer - South Africa

I want to say that my husband and I are besides ourself regarding both my wedding ring & engagement ring. I dont even want to go there is essence of the hardships we had with two different custom Jewelers on Long Island, both highly recommended. Well both rings are white gold, not Rhodium dipped. Both were also appraised after we purchased them and the value is high on both, so we know we got what we paid for. I had to get a V band instead of a regular solid round band for my wedding ring as my engagement ring had two outside stone, so we designed it with the jeweler and it came out very nice. But the first issue is why is the top of the wedding band ( the side that is facing the engagement ring getting a discoloration on it, that are not rubbing, its looking like it may be a chemical reaction to the two pieces of white gold facing one another, its discoloring my ring and my band isnt yellow yet, as its only about 6 months old, but my engagment ring is turning a bit gold. Help, is it safe to rhodium plate over the white gold. As I said it was appraised and is all white gold. Not sure what to do, will the Rhodim finish damage my ring. Will it give it the shine and sparkle it so deserves. also I clean my rings at least once a day is this a safe thing to do with diamonds and white gold. If so what is the safest solution to us for cleaning.
Help-I'm at my wits end right now the rings total 17,000 together.

Kristy W.
Consumer - Smithtown, NY

Yes, the rings can be safely rhodium plated and they will be dazzling. Discuss the plating in detail with one of the two jewelers or with Metal Arts Specialties / Artisan Plating.

Ted Mooney, P.E. 
finishing.com
Brick, NJ

I have just had my wedding band rhodium plated. It appears to be more like a platinum coloured ring and not the "white" gold colour I was hoping for. The shop assistant told me that the darker colour was a result of the high quality products used. Is this right?

Catherine Peers
buyer - Sydney, Australia

No.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. 
finishing.com
Brick, NJ

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