All About White Gold

Many people confuse white gold with platinum. Platinum is a rare gray-white transition metal. White gold is actually an alloy of gold and a white metal such as palladium, silver, manganese, or nickel. The properties of white gold vary depending on the metal contents and their proportions. This makes alloys of white gold suitable for many purposes, like earrings and gemstone settings.

The purity of this alloy is provided in karats and within the industry, the term “white gold” is used loosely to describe various karat gold alloys that have a whitish hue. Some people believe that the color of rhodium plating in commercial pieces is actually that of white gold. Rather than being truly white, the color spectrum for white gold overlaps or borders on tinted brown, pale yellow, or pale rose. Rhodium plating is often used to hide these shades.
Ten percent nickel and 90 percent gold is a common formulation of white gold. When copper is added, malleability increases. In the jewelry industry, gold-silver-palladium and gold-copper-zinc-nickel alloys are used. Nickel and palladium are primary gold bleaching agents. Zinc serves as a secondary bleaching agent, attenuating copper coloring.
Approximately one in every eight people experience an allergic reaction to the nickel contained in white gold alloys after a period of wearing the jewelry. For this reason, some jewelry makers no longer use nickel in their white gold. When shopping for white gold jewelry, investigate whether nickel is used in the piece because this could prevent a skin rash from occurring.
Though rhodium plating makes white gold look whiter, this hard coating eventually wears away. A white gold ring should be replated with rhodium every 12 to 18 months to keep it looking new. Local jewelers are often able to provide rhodium plating to white gold jewelry for a reasonable price. This ongoing cost of ownership should be considered.