 | Jerry Burnell has been a driving force in the jewelry industry of Kansas for the past 30 years. Jerry is a native of Wichita and a graduate of Wichita State University. He jokingly says that he had a degree in business, almost a masters in business, almost a degree in chemistry, with heavy studies in physics, math, and biology and he just quit college, that he figured that with 239 credit hours he should be able to make a living somewhere. Actually he was already deep into the motions of starting the most respected jewelry design team in this part of the country. Jerry is highly regarded and considered an expert in many fields, three of which are Precious gemstones, jewelry manufacture, and jewelry design. Jerry is presently president of The Kansas Jewelers Association and holds a position on the advisory board of Jewelers of America. You may contact Jerry at Burnell’s Jewelers, (316) 634-2822, or find Burnell’s Jewelers on the web at www.burnells.com |
Gold, Silver, Diamonds & Jewelry
2003-04-01 11:53:00
White gold and yellow gold
: What is the difference between yellow gold and White gold?
ANSWER: Well, we need to back up just a bit to what is 14 Karat gold? Twenty-four Karat gold is pure gold, no alloys. Fourteen Karat is 14 twenty-fourths (14/24 or 58.33%) gold and 10 twenty-fourths (10/24s or 41.67%) alloy. 10K is 10/24s gold and 14/24s alloy. In the United States gold has to be at least 10K to be called gold. Likewise 18 Karat is 75% gold and 25% alloy. Now for the difference... in yellow gold you use copper, silver and zinc in very exact proportions whereas in white gold you leave out the copper and silver and replace it with a white metal like nickel. Today we have found that some people have an allergy to nickel and there have been many studies into replacing it with a metal like palladium or another similar metal. But there are other colors of gold that we have forgotten. To get rose gold you merely leave out part of the silver in yellow gold and put in more copper. To get greenish gold you use less copper and add more silver. Then there are some very exotic gold colors like black and lavender, which you get by using iron or aluminum. These exotic metals usually have some undesirable attributes like being very brittle or oxidation.Even by changing the alloy white gold is not pure white. The true gold color still shows through just barely and you end up with a yellowish white. The best way to end up with white-white is to Rhodium plate the finished piece of jewelry. Some people think negatively when they hear plating. Rhodium is a very white, very hard, scratch- resistant, and expensive metal. It is a member of the platinum family and is more expensive than platinum. Because of the expense of Rhodium, lesser quality jewelers use a very thin coating, skip this step altogether or use the much less expensive but inferior palladium as a shortcut. Even though an item carries a karat stamp it does not mean that it is truly that karat. Before 1981 the law read that in order to stamp an article with a Karat mark it had to be plus or minus one half karat. This law was written in 1906 when the alloying technology was much more primitive. By the 50s that meant that most 14K gold was actually 13.5001 Karat. So the 1981 congress, with the support of the jewelry industry, changed the law to... if it is marked 14K it has to be at least 14K. This does not mean that there are not unscrupulous persons who do not live by the law. Under karating has been a problem since the beginning of metallurgy. It simply comes back to: if it sounds too good tp be true... it probably is. Know your jeweler. Even some of the names you hear most often have been indicted for 'under-karating'.White gold is a fairly "new" metal only being used since the 20s. Today we have a choice of colors of gold, and the choices will probably will probably become greater in the future.
