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After rhodium plating is this my same ring?

My husband took his ring in to get it sized. It has 3 stripes the middle one being 90% of the width of the ring. There was gold on the 2 outside stripes. When we got it back it was completely silver and the middle stripe was way smaller then what it was before. We told them that it wasn't the same ring and they told us it had been rhodium plated. Is this really the same ring? Will rhodium plating it change the shape of the ring?

Julie Sears
buyer - Lafayette, Indiana
December 16, 2009

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Hi, Julie. Rhodium plating will not change the shape of the ring but it will change the appearance enough that you might be fooled. If the ring fits him it sounds unlikely that there was an accidental switch.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
December 17, 2009

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Color me silly here but I may be missing something. You indicate that you had a ring that had 2 different colors of gold. You brought it in for sizing and they rhodium plated it? If you buy a ring with 2 colors you generally buy it BECAUSE it has two colors! If it was indeed gold one would assume that tarnish was not an issue. Why on earth would you want a gold ring rhodium plated? I'm just a bit confused here. The rhodium plating is bound to be quite thin and as soon as it wears a bit the gold is going to start showing through and then its going to look a trifle silly.

Rod Henrickson
gunsmith - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
December 21, 2009

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Hi, Rod. I couldn't quite follow the question either. You are right that rhodium plating is very thin. The reason people want it is that there is nothing as bright and glittery and diamond like -- but it should only be applied on top of white gold so that as it gets thin so there is no marked contrast. When applied on top of yellow gold, the life is usually too short to be practical.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
December 22, 2009

I didn't want it rhodium plated! I only wanted the ring sized and for some reason they rhodium plated it after they sized it. The ring had 3 stripes, white gold in the middle (taking up 90% of the width of the ring) and gold on the 2 outer stripes. When we received the ring back the middle stripe was smaller taking up only 80% of the ring. I was wondering if it is possible for it to be the same ring since the width of the stripes were different after they rhodium plated it. I hope that clears up my question.

Julie Sears
- lafayette indiana
December 30, 2009

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Sorry to be dense, Julie, but my problem is that rhodium plating is not transparent so I don't understand how you are managing to see through the plating to know how thick the stripes of yellow and white are. Maybe you are trying to say that the ring is all one color now, but there are grooves cut into the ring and the grooves don't seem to be in the original place after the resizing? It does seem unlikely that they could have filled the old grooves and cut new ones.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
December , 2009

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Sorry! That is correct the grooves are in the wrong place! So it wouldn't change that aspect of the ring? They are telling me it is the same ring and I just don't believe that if they dip it into something that it would come out with the grooves (stipes) different widths. It is all silver now you cannot see the gold.
Thank you for your help!

Julie Sears
- Lafayette, Indiana
December 31, 2009

Okay, now I clearly understand the question. Thanks. The rhodium plating process is millionths of an inch thick, with no ability to move the grooves. Even if the plating was very thick on one side of the groove and very thin on the other, so as to "move" the center of the groove, the plating thickness is so miniscule that you couldn't possibly see the change even with a strong magnifying glass. Either your memory of where the grooves were is incorrect, or the old grooves are gone and new grooves are there. Although I'm not a jeweler, and no expert on this, it seems impossible.

I think you should tell the jeweler you didn't want the rhodium, so now you want the rhodium polished off so you have a two-tone ring again. I can't fathom how any jeweler could possibly think it was okay to change a two-tone ring to one tone without the owner's agreement.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
January 4, 2010

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Whatever happened it sounds like something went wrong and some one is possibly covering up the boo boo with the plating. Many years ago I had slight argument with a motorcycle and broke my arm and a bunch of bones in my hand. By the time I got to the hospital my fingers had swollen so badly that my class ring was stuck. The doctor told me he could cut off the finger or the ring. I opted to let him take a wire saw and pliers to the ring. Some time later I had the ring repaired the jeweler warned me that the repair may not look perfect but I told him to have at it anyway. Overall he did a very nice job but one can see that the area of the weld is a slightly different color. He warned me that could happen so I couldn't whine about it and after 15 years of wear and tear its hardly noticeable. I suppose I could have had the ring plated but the plating would have worn off in short order and probably left me with a worse mess. Your situation does sound a little fishy though. I think if I brought a red car in for an oil change and got back a blue one I might tend to suspect that things did not go exactly as planned.

Rod Henrickson
gunsmith - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
January 6, 2010

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September 8, 2010

From what I gather the rhodium on the ring gives the appearance of an optical illusion that the designs have been altered. From what I've seen in plating rings, they can appear to have physically changed quite a bit after plating from one color to another. I've plated yellow gold and two-tone gold rings with rhodium (not to sell, but for practice, as it's easier to see bad plating with a yellow gold contrast; I had to clarify why because Ted highly condemns this practice for sale items : D ) and noticed that the ring didn't quite look the same. Once the rhodium has been polished off, your ring may appear to be the one you had before.

Michael Rodriguez
- Blythe, California, USA

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Hi, Michael. Thanks.

I "condemn" plating rhodium on yellow gold rings not out of personal experience but because of a hundred sad stories submitted to the site by disappointed buyers.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
September 9, 2010

My children gave me a sapphire ring recently when I finished graduate school. I had to have it sized and it came back to me in silver but had been gold. I was absolutely shocked and have never heard that this was a practice with or without consent. I wanted the ring the way it was given to me. To me it is damaged goods and unless the jeweler corrects it I will insist on full compensation.

Kathy Lewis
- Durham, North Carolina USA
February 18, 2011