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Newly married and cannot wear wedding/engagement rings due to allergy to ALL metals but titanium and yellow gold

2005

Hello

I was recently diagnosed as allergic to all metals except yellow gold and titanium. The allergy test at my dermatologist was one of many medical visits to determine the cause of the chronic hand and foot eczema that I suddenly started getting in Jan 2003 at age 33. I can pinpoint it to the receipt of a Christmas gift in Dec 2002 of a platinum ring. I wore it daily and I live in a very humid place.

My dermatologist told me to get my rings (the Christmas gift, my platinum engagement ring and my white gold wedding band) reset or plated in titanium. I've searched throughout the town where I live (Singapore) and the best I can get is plating in rhodium. Will this be the proper route to take?

Many thanks in advance

Joyce Ann Odom
consumer - Singapore

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Rhodium isn't Titanium and is a metal - therefore it would probably be a bad idea. This is especially true since most white gold is plated in rhodium and so I would imagine it was one of the metals that your doctor tested you for.

If you keep looking, you should be able to find a gold plater (I think titanium is trickier to plate, it may be less common) - try looking at metal finishing job shops rather than just jewlers; Singapore should have plenty of sources for what your looking for.

Good luck!

Jim Gorsich
Compton, California, USA
2005

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Joyce, I sympathise with your problem. It sounds to me like you have become sensitised to at least some metals. The most common one is nickel, although it is also claimed other metals such as platinum, cobalt and copper can also cause allergic responses. The basic problem is that the precious metals used in jewellery are very soft in their pure state so they alloy the metal with other ones such as nickel to harden them and make them more wear resistant.

I would not suggest plating your jewellery with rhodium because it will soon wear off and re-expose the metals beneath, so you will be forever getting your jewellery replated. One trick used by the jewellery industry is to vacuum deposit the jewellery with a compound called titanium nitride (TiN). This is very hard and has a colour very similar to gold. It is also possible to deposit a slightly rough coating which can then be smoothed off by plating it with pure gold. This gold will be very soft and will soon smooth off, leaving the rough peaks of TiN exposed whilst the valleys between the peaks are filled with pure gold; hence the jewellery will look like pure gold, but not wear nearly so fast. Hope this helps.

Trevor Crichton
R&D practical scientist
Chesham, Bucks, UK
2005

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Thanks to both Jim and Trevor.

I have a further question - what about plating or totally resetting the rings in titanium? Would this work?

It's a case of vanity, I'm afraid, but I really do not like yellow gold.

I really do appreciate your advice to date.

Thanks again!

Joyce Ann Odom
- Singapore
2005

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Hi Joyce,

I THINK there are complications with plating titanium - I'm an anodizer, and therefor not familiar with the process, but I think there have been a few discussions on the subject here at finishing.com. You can use the search engine from the home page to look for those letters if you like.

As for re-doing the rings in Titanium - yeah, I can't imagine that that would be a problem. Titanium jewelry fairly common and you should be able to find someone capable of doing it - just ask your local jewelers or go on-line to look for someone that makes it.

Good luck!

Jim Gorsich
Compton, California, USA
2005

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Joyce,
The only way to plate titanium is to use vacuum technology and this will only give a very thin coating that will wear off quite quickly. Conventional electroplating cannot be done with titanium. I see no reason why you cannot have the stones remounted in a titanium setting, assuming you like to colour of the metal. Good luck.

Trevor Crichton
R&D practical scientist
Chesham, Bucks, UK
2005

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Joyce,
I would suggest you to buy a gold ring and get it plated with rhodium. But strictly insist the plater not to give an undercoat of Nickel.99% platers do a nickel undercoat to get a brighter colour. Also have a second opinion with the doctor about pure Rhodium allergy on u.
good luck

T.K. Mohan
plating process supplier - Mumbai, India
2005

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Rhodium plating is only a short term fix. It will wear away and re-expose the offending gold substrate. The only factor affecting this will be the thickness of the rhodium and hence the cost - the more rhodium the longer it will last, but the more expensive it will be. There is also a problem that you will not know how much rhodium has been put down until it has failed, so you can easily be conned. If you do go down this route, use a very reputable plater and get him to certify how much rhodium he has put down and that there is no nickel barrier. If he insists on a barrier layer, use white bronze (copper-tin alloy, but get him to certify everything. If he is a good, honest plater, he will have no problem with this approach.

Trevor Crichton
R&D practical scientist
Chesham, Bucks, UK
2005

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