How to Change Jewelry from Yellow to White Gold

A. Hi Ivette. Rhodium is electroplated onto jewelry and looks something like chrome, only whiter and brighter. It is a precious metal, that can be ten times the cost of gold, but is plated so thin that the cost of the rhodium is not a big deal.

Pure gold is yellow. But jewelry is rarely 24 karat pure gold because it is very soft. If you use nickel or palladium as the alloying ingredient in the gold, the alloy can be whitish. Most white gold is not bright enough for today's taste (which seems to demand a diamond-like glitter) so it is rhodium plated for a truly shiny look.

There is probably no technical reason you could not have your setting rhodium plated even though it is yellow gold rather than white gold, but the plating must be heavy to thoroughly cover the yellow color. And as the rhodium plating wears through, the contrast between rhodium and yellow gold will be quite obvious, and very frequent replating will be necessary unless you only plan to wear the ring once in a while on special occasions.

Many people are happy with rings that are made of rhodium plated high quality white gold, because the glittery rhodium can gradually wear off over the years, gradually turning from showroom sparkle to the softer look appropriate to an heirloom. But if it's yellow gold underneath, it's a constant replating issue. This is why the recent practice by mall jewelers of plating yellow gold with rhodium (instead of only plating high quality white gold with rhodium) is so completely unsatisfactory.

A. The gold ring can be Rhodium plated, but you must bear in mind that it must first be buffed and polished well then it can be plated. The plating will not last forever as the wear and tear of the ring makes it rub off quicker that bracelets or necklaces. But it will give it a brilliant shine.

A. You can't really change a yellow gold necklace to a white gold necklace without melting it down a starting over. White gold is yellow gold that has nickel or palladium( another precious metal) added to it to whiten it. There are very few elements that will change the color of gold with nickel being the most effective. However more and more of the population is showing allergic reactions to nickel so many are switching to palladium as a whitener. This is more expensive but actually makes a better alloy. But you have to start with the alloy and go from there. If you already have the object ( necklace) then your choices are basically limited to electroplating. The whitest of metals is silver, but silver is soft and tarnishes. Your next best bet is Rhodium, a very hard, very bright, durable and expensive precious metal that doesn't tarnish. Rhodium plating will make your necklace very bright and white. If you have it plated to a slightly heavier than usual thickness for jewelry items, it should be very durable. Most platers just put a flash coat of only 8-10 micro-inches but if you go thicker it will last a long time. I can't give you cost but it should not be too bad. The amount of metal used is very small. Just make sure you go to a reputable jeweler or the results will be poor, especially if the necklace isn't thoroughly cleaned before plating.

A. We have hundreds of such complaints on line here, Manny. See our faq on rhodium plating and white gold.

But, in short, the most immediate problems are that the rhodium plating on your ring is defective (probably much too thin) and the jeweler used yellow gold under the rhodium plating instead of white gold. While white gold is not as shiny and white as rhodium plating, and the lower color scales may be grayish or slightly yellowish, still, white gold is not yellow gold.

I'd give the jeweler a chance to replate it and give you a five year guarantee on the plating.

Here we have a major problem that is costing millions of people money and heartache --with the jewelers well aware of the problem, doing nothing about it, continuing to play dumb and be misleading, refusing to label plated jewelry as plated, blaming the buyers for their nickel allergies, and doing a trashy job of plating heirlooms. They are hurting all of these people, while making our plating industry look bad -- and doing it all with impunity and not even any bad press. People often complain about lawyers and their class action suits, but I am cheering for an attorney to come forward and get rich on this one :-)

A. Dear Nina S,

Value is relative. If you like white gold more, than it is more valuable to you because you get more joy out of it. However, monetarily speaking, gold comes in various karats, the highest being 24k (the highest grade being 99.99% gold). White gold is a mix of the element metal Au (gold) and other metals (as mentioned above); that's why the highest purity content of white gold is only 18k (or 75% pure gold) because you need the other 25% to be made up of metals that will "whiten" the gold out. The coating that is being mentioned (rhodium) is applied only to give it a bright white shine. But to answer your question, the more pure the gold (higher percentage of Au), the more monetarily valuable it is (as it could theoretically be recast into something else). The value of gold is considered relatively stable, and thus "keeps its value".

A. Hi, Sarah. There is probably nickel plating underneath the rhodium, and if your problem is a metal allergy, it's most likely that the nickel is the problem. Trying to turn your yellow ring white with rhodium plating is a temporary and not very satisfactory situation, but if that's what you want to do, it is possible to have white bronze plated onto the ring as an interlayment instead of the nickel. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi, Nellie. Although anything can theoretically be rhodium plated, there are several issues. First, as the rhodium wears thin, it will be much more noticeable earlier on yellow gold than on white gold. Second, it's a question of the amount of wear; the plating won't last long on a ring but will last a very long time on a rarely worn brooch. Third is the practicality of plating the item; electrical contact is required for plating to occur; the jeweler must stretch the chain out for plating or hang it and jiggle it to make sure each link has contact, and this may make it uneconomical since most jewelers do the plating in a teacup sized plating cell.

Regards,

A. Hi Rowan
Cheap replating is a $25 issue; top quality replating might be $200. Whether the plating is original or not should not be a deal breaker; but if it's a 1940s ring, and was worn, and it's yellow gold, the rhodium plating could not possibly have lasted all these years.

Hi, Carrie.
White gold is a different composition than yellow gold, so melting down one to make the other would not work.

Although doing rhodium plating on a yellow gold ring is poor practice because of the contrast as the plating wears, life is a compromise. You might get good quality rhodium plating done on your mother's ring and just plan on wearing it infrequently and having it replated frequently if it's really what you need to do.

Regards,

A. Hi, Kim. Jewelry shops are not plating shops and are quite limited in their plating capacities and abilities. But a specialty jewelry plating shop can probably help you. See the banner at the bottom of the page.

One approach would be to selectively brush plate only the gold area. Another approach would be to properly activate the stainless steel with a Wood's nickel strike and then rhodium plate the assembly.

Regards,

A. Hi. Mitzi. If you are correct about the origin of the yellow color, a jeweler can probably mechanically polish the yellow color off. It's not that you absolutely can't do it yourself, but polishing is an acquired skill -- and you probably shouldn't use heirlooms as your practice pieces :-)

Regards,

A. Hi, Meaghan.

White gold should remain essentially white when the rhodium plating wears thin. It is possible that they are yellow gold or at least too-yellowish white gold.

Regards,