Plating rhodium on white gold

A. Gold is yellow metal in nature. We use nickel and palladium in the alloys to turn it white with bleaching effect. Silver is white in nature so it can give its colour to gold and turn it a bit white. The more the content of nickel, palladium and silver, the more the metal is white. But the surface it not perfectly white and shiny. So rhodium is deposited on it by electroplating process.

Rhodium is most brightest metal on this planet. But is grayish in nature. it reflects the base metal colour so the metal appears white and bright after rhodium plating.

You can get white, brown and yellow sports on your metal surface if the rhodium process is not done carefully or the metal surface is not cleaned properly before rhodium.

Since rhodium is brightest metal, even a small scratches on your piece will be clearly visible after rhodium. so the piece should be nicely buffed before rhodium.

While plating, the person should take care of several things like the voltage and current at which the piece is dipped in the rhodium bath, the time for which the piece is kept in the bath, & the bath temperature; the piece should be cleaned properly, after cleaning it's rinsed with DM water and then before entering to the rhodium bath, it's dipped in acid to make the piece neutral (i.e. pH 7). If all these instructions are followed properly, you can get a perfect, clean, and spotless rhodium plating on your metal.

A. I have recently read that the jewellery industry in the UK has been aware of this problem and has recently graded white gold on a 32 point system and then sub divided into 3 categories so the manufacturer or the retailer buying white gold bullion or finished products will know what grade and colour they are purchasing even if already plated . This grading has been done through the gold council and assay office .
Grade 1 - no need for plating
Grade 2 - option to plate
Grade 3 - requires plating

A. It is indeed disheartening, Brian, and you are right about how big a problem it is. I've learned a lot in the last few years --

Gold is yellow. There are no isotopes that are white; that is scientific fact.

To make jewelry, jewelers usually mix gold with other metals because pure 24 karat gold is too soft for finely detailed jewelry. If the other metals they mix it with are chiefly nickel or palladium, the resulting mix will be "whitish". How white depends on which metals they mix in, and in what proportion. A "whiteness scale" is mentioned a few postings above.

Your relatives have rings where the right metal (probably palladium) was mixed in, and in the right proportion, that the ring came out satisfactorily white for them, and it stayed that color over the decades.

Although your relatives' rings are indeed white, they are not the brilliant shiny highly polished, diamond-like, chrome-plated-like look of what you see in jewelry stores today. That is the look of rhodium, not the look of white gold. Whether consumer-driven or jeweler-driven, tastes changed to where people now expect white gold jewelry to be that brilliant rhodium plated color -- probably because it makes the diamonds look bigger. So it became nearly universal to rhodium plate the jewelry, and you won't see much unplated white gold jewelry; and if you do, you will find it quite "dull" compared to the glittery rhodium plated stuff.

My assumption is that what happened is the jewelry industry started saying to themselves "we're going to rhodium plate it anyway, why spend the extra money for palladium in the mix", so they started accepting white gold of lower and lower "whiteness" as the base, worrying about it less and less. It seems that some jewelry stores in the middle aisles of malls may even be rhodium plating regular yellow gold.

Some people love the glistening rhodium plated look so much that they accept frequent replating as the cost of getting it. I'm not one of them. Like you, I believe heirloom jewelry should not be plated. But I accept that that means it will be "white" but it will not be dazzling because a mix of yellow gold and other metals, no matter how well done, just can never be the brilliant dazzling color of rhodium. Hope it helps.

A. Peeling!? The plating is for some reason defective, Nancy. It might eventually wear through, but it should never peel.

Other threads in this forum indicate a replating cost of about $30 to $50 at jewelry stores, although there are plating shops which have expensive instrumentation and which specialize in plating high quality jewelry, and they might charge twice that.

A. My wedding set is of white gold. I take my set in annually to have the rhodium placing done. From what I've researched and from what I've been told, white gold loses it's "white gold" color due to various reasons...chemical reactions to skin, chemical reactions to lotions, soaps, etc...also from salt water and just age. I fish and camp often so my rings get dull quite fast. If you purchase your rings with a warranty, the warranty coverage should cover the rhodium plating on your ring. The rhodium plating also help get rid of scratches. I just picked up my set today, takes about a week or so and about $35.00 per ring. They come back looking as if your rings are spanking new. I highly recommend getting the process done annually.

A. Not quite true, Natalie. Because this issue is very confusing spread across hundreds of postings, we've summarized it all for easy reading as our FAQ on Rhodium Plating and White Gold.

 Yes, that is my understanding, Nathalie.

I've been married 39 years and just bought the 3rd setting for my wife's ring because two wore out over the decades. I doubt we'll be around long enough to wear this one out, but whoever we pass it on to won't have to worry about replating because we went yellow this time :-)

But the diamond really does look much smaller than it used to. My wife married such a cheapskate :-(

A. Hi, Elaine. The biggest problem, as mentioned in the FAQs, is that the contrast between yellow gold and rhodium is so drastic that your ring becomes unsatisfactory looking very quickly. While I haven't heard of rings becoming brittle because of too frequent replating, I suppose it's possible if you are doing it every couple of months.

The price of rhodium is presently off the charts (literally! see www.kitco.com/scripts/hist_charts/yearly_graphs.cgi). It was $7000 per ounce in January and is $9,000 per ounce now. Although little is needed, I don't think you will be able to afford replating every 2 months forever, not to mention the inconvenience. Please consider letting your yellow gold ring be yellow.

Regards,

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Ed. note 2017: The cost of rhodium topped out at about $12,000 per ounce but it is presently slightly lower than gold. My assumption that the price would keep rising was wrong, so it's good I'm not trying to earn a living in speculation :-)
It turns out that rhodium is so rare that it cannot be mined for its own sake. Rather, it's a byproduct of mining platinum. So when a lot of platinum is being mined, rhodium costs about the same as gold; but when platinum mining goes into a downturn, rhodium becomes virtually unavailable and its price soars.

A. Hi, Judy. It's only a matter of how long the rhodium plating will last before wearing off considering the strong contrast. It's not a good idea for a ring, but for earrings that you wear only occasionally, and that don't get friction like a ring, it may be fine.

Regards,

A. Unfortunately I could not read all the comments on this topic, I just got too tired to read of the same problem over and over again. But please read the following.
I am a Jeweler and I personally replate jewellery for a living.
The truth is that plating Rhodium over white gold is a jewellery making standard. Depending on the kind of alloys, the color may vary on white gold. What consumers need to know is that Rhodium is really a PLATING and it DOES wear out. Depending on how often jewellery are used and on the person, as well as on the quality of the plating and solution used. Some jewellery are hollow and the jeweler doesn't want to risk to contaminate a $450 solution, so he uses older solution.
Consumers also need to understand that a piece of jewellery CANNOT stay shiny forever. It's normal when the surface gets scratches over time.
There is no way to keep jewellery shiny forever. They need to be cleaned and polished regularly.
Now, if you really don't want you jewellery to discolor ask you jeweler to make your jewellery using SUPER WHITE K19 WHITE GOLD. This alloy does not require Rhodium plating and will stay white forever. Furthermore, it will REQUIRE polishing and cleaning regularly.

A. We are a manufacturing jeweler located in South Africa.

We often manufacture wedding bands for couples. Typically, mostly because the engagement ring is 18kt white gold, the lady's ring is made in the same metal.

Gents are generally rougher with their hands and so we mostly manufacture their rings in 9kt white gold which is more durable. The lower gold content (37.5%) + the other white alloys combine to give a whiter finish without the need for rhodium plating.

This is the main reason why gents bands do not tend to go yellow.

A. Hi all,

Been reading through the thread and found some more info on another site which some of you may find useful.

Read on:

A. Hi, Jennifer. Yes, the ring was probably replated after the resizing, and this is probably the cause of the spotting. The jeweler should either polish out the spots or replate the ring. The spots are not supposed to be there. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi, Theresa. It is possible to tell the underlying composition via X-Ray Fluorescence, but the machines are very expensive and few jewelers would have them. Other than that, the test would be "destructive" -- that is, you would need to get to the underlying material to chemically test it for purity and composition.

The rhodium is only a few millionths of an inch thick. If it's done properly, I doubt that it's possible to do it too often.

Regards,

A. Hi, Hailie.

Thanks for the kind thoughts. Unfortunately,palladium plating is not more durable than rhodium plating. The basic problem is that the palladium ring is a solid consistent pleasing color whereas the white gold ring is actually somewhat yellowish, with the yellowness concealed under a thin plating. No matter what plating you use, it will wear off because rings are very high wear items. But a top class job of plating, whether rhodium or palladium, will be an improvement over a quick and thin coat.

Regards,

A. I USED TO WORK FOR ZALES JEWELRY STORE AND MIGHT HAVE A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE INTO THE WHITE GOLD TURNING YELLOW PROBLEMS SO MANY OF YOU ARE HAVING. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS WHITE GOLD. NO ONE GOES MINING AND FINDS WHITE GOLD IT IS ALL YELLOW. RHODIUM IS A PROCESS OF TURNING THE YELLOW GOLD WHITE. WITH THAT BEING SAID, THE ACID IN YOUR BODY CAN TURN THE WHITE GOLD YELLOW AND DEPENDING ON YOUR BODY TYPE IT CAN BE MORE FREQUENT THAN OTHERS. AFTER A YEAR MINE IS STILL WHITE, BUT MY MOTHER'S RING NEEDS TO BE REPLATED. OF COURSE THERE'S ALSO THE QUALITY FACTOR, BUT IN LAYMEN'S TERMS ALL RINGS ARE GOING TO NEED REPLATING AT SOME POINT IT'S JUST A MATTER OF HOW OFTEN WHICH DIFFERS WITH EACH INDIVIDUAL. ZALES OFFERS A LIFETIME PROTECTION PLAN WHICH WILL COVER RHODIUM PLATING FOR THE LIFE OF THE JEWELRY, IT'S WORTH THE EXTRA COUPLE OF BUCKS.

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 Hi, Genna. Thanks for your input. But it's only partially correct. Although it is true that you can't find white gold in a mine, jewelry is rarely 24 kt gold. Rather it is, say 12 kt: i.e., half gold and half other metals. If those other metals are palladium or nickel, the jewelry will be whitish and it will be called white gold jewelry.

Yes, these days most white gold jewelry is rhodium plated for full "bling" because this is an age of bling, but if the jewelry is a good shade of white underneath the rhodium plating it will need replating rather infrequently because there will be very little contrast as the plating wears away. If the underlying metal is yellow, plating will be required very frequently because the contrast will be terrible as soon as the already very thin rhodium plating wears a little bit.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
January 6, 2011

A. Hi, Rosie. Your jeweler seems to be telling the exact truth, but she could still be inadvertently misleading you a bit. There are very "white" white golds that do not 'require' plating; Stuller "X1 14K" and W.R. Cobb's "Precise® White Gold" are two examples that I've heard of.

But please remember that no other metal in the world offers the "bling" of rhodium plating -- it is very hard so it can be polished to the most reflective of all metals. A very high quality, very "white" white gold may be pleasing to you and it would be to me ... but if your girlfriends are flashing their rhodium plated rings, then maybe not, because rhodium is so bright that it will make their diamonds look much bigger :-)

But do the win-win of buying a really white ring and then you can always have it rhodium plated later if you wish!

Regards,

I, as a Master Jeweler, have been working with all kinds of fine gold alloys and platinum. So, related to the white fine metal alloys, I can tell that, while some of them have a hint of yellow, some others can be created that are completely white and there is no need of finishing with a layer of rhodium as second skin.
Because the alloy metal(s) that give the white color to pure gold should include palladium in order to avoid the rhodium finishing bath, the final metal surface structure doesn't allow obtaining a high brilliancy finish no matter what polishing compound is used.
This way, the white color of this kind of white gold will last forever but its brilliance is lower compared to any other kind of white gold being whitened by a rhodium bath finishing.
People who prefer not to lose the original permanent white of their jewelry piece, the first of the two options given above should be selected.
If the white dazzling super-polish given by rhodium plating is preferred on whatever original gold color the jewelry piece had (including yellow gold), then, the second option should be selected. However, this option leads to re-plating the jewelry piece as frequently as needed.
A very good rhodium plating may last one year or a bit more depending on the kind of the jewelry piece and the wearing conditions.
As a matter of example, a very good rhodium plating layer is just 1.8 micro-inches thick!!
Most jewelers deposit only one quarter of this thickness in their rhodium layer.
Conclusions:
* All kinds of metal used in jewelry can be rhodium-plated to looks like platinum (or even more white)
* White gold alloys that do not change their good white color do not require rhodium-plating but cannot get a super-brilliant aspect.
* Rhodium-plating gives an excellent white super-brilliant and dazzling aspect but this condition is not permanent.

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May 2017

  Thanks so much, Carlo. Wonderful explanation!

Regards,

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