Metal Jewelry Smelting,1

The Big 4 of Metal Jewelry

Although jewelry is made from many different metals and other materials, there is only a handful of metals used to make the world’s finest jewelry. They are known as precious metals and are silver, gold, platinum, and palladium. When selecting jewelry, it’s very important that you know the differences between these metals, and even between grades of the same metal, to make an informed purchase.

Because silver exists in abundance, it is the least expensive of the four precious metals. Pure silver, 24K, is almost 100% pure silver, but is too soft for use in jewelry making. Therefore, you’ll find that metal jewelry made of silver is Sterling Silver, which is made with over 92% silver and the balance is usually copper for strength. Sterling silver is used for almost any type of jewelry items, especially those with a big bold look (like bangles and belt buckles), because sterling silver is affordable. As the amount of pure silver decreases in an alloy, its likelihood to tarnish goes up.

Gold, like silver, is too soft to use for metal jewelry in its pure, 24K form. Therefore, to make it wearable, it is alloyed with brass (another alloy of copper and zinc) to give it strength and maintain its yellow color. Gold jewelry ranges in purity from 18K to 10K, with a corresponding gold content of 75% down to 25%. 14K gold, the most common form, is about 50% gold and 50% other metals. White gold, an off-shoot from yellow gold, is formed and graded the exact same way, except white gold is alloyed with nickel, palladium, or zinc. This alloy turns out to be a rather dull gray color, so all white gold is plated with rhodium to give it a mirror-like finish. White gold requires more maintenance than yellow gold, because the rhodium plating will wear off, and will have to be re-plated occasionally.

Platinum is just recently becoming affordable in the jewelry world because more mines are opening up to extract the ore. It has an appearance similar to white gold, but gets its shine from being polished, not plated. Platinum is heavier and more brittle than gold and silver, and requires higher working temperatures to melt, so it is not quite as versatile as gold. It is also more expensive than 18K gold, another detractor. But this metal is resistant to almost every chemical, and is very strong. It is used in critical industrial applications as much as it is in metal jewelry.

There’s not much to say yet about our last member of the Big 4, palladium, because it is still in relatively short supply. It has most of the same characteristics as platinum, but is actually a by-product of the platinum, copper, and gold ore smelting processes, not its own ore. Therefore it is very rare and very expensive, and at this time is only used as an alloy component in white gold to give it its proper color.

You can find the full article about choosing the best metal jewelry and much more jewelry advice and information on Jewelrista.com

About the Author

Tom Diamatis/Tom Diamente

Editor

Jewelrista

Jewelry Design and Passion

http://Jewelrista.com

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