Solid rhodium rings? Why or why not

A. Re: Rhodium and Palladium jewelry, HSN not too long ago sold palladium jewelry, unfortunately I guess when those in the 'jewelry-know' found out about it, it sold out rather quickly.
I'd also like to purchase some rhodium and palladium pieces myself (price aside), and believe that if there is a 'large enough push' for these 'metals', that eventually they just might become available on a more readily available scale (with perhaps even a drop in the prices).

A. Yes Obama did get his wife a rhodium ring- this was well publicized at the time he was elected, Amy. I have a rhodium Rolex [affil links] watch and it is the most beautiful, stunning watch I have ever seen. When I bought it I didn't even know quite the value of rhodium but I liked the look. btw just the face is rhodium. The band is stainless steel.

A. I read that pure iridium jewelry is the latest trend. One of the hardest metals known (doesn't scratch), doesn't oxidize (tarnish) and common acids do not affect it all. Denser (heavier) than platinum but about one third the cost per troy ounce. However the cost of a platinum ring and an identical iridium ring are about the same due to the difficulty in working with iridium. A company called American Elements sells iridium rings.

A. Hi, I have succeeded in making beautiful rings out of solid rhodium. We will shortly begin marketing gorgeous wedding bands, engagement rings, and other styles made from 90% rhodium, 10% platinum.

I have made rings out of .999 fine rhodium, but I found that alloying it with 10% platinum results in a better, more durable product.

A. One of the above posts made a very good point. From what I've also researched about rhodium, it is too brittle to use as a ring. VERY poor malleability, and would almost certainly crack if it were sized up or down. Even mounting a stone would probably crack the mounting itself, and hitting the ring on something that would otherwise bend gold, would probably crack your rhodium ring. I think the properties of the metal more than the price dictates why making a ring out of solid rhodium isn't common practice. I'm sure there are people out there who wouldn't bat an eye about the price if they really wanted one.

A. Rhodium is ideal for jewelry. It is highly reflective (which is why it is used to plate platinum jewelry and accent gold jewelry), it is inert, it is stronger than any of the other precious metal, and it is terribly rare and therefore desirable for value reasons. It's just taking the public a long time to come along.

A. I always wondered about bismuth, or alloys of it. It's an odd metal like the above. And I must say, rhodium has the luster of polished cast iron.

I haven't heard you guys mention yttrium or zirconium. Zirconium is stablised by yttrium in jewelry application.

www.hobart.k12.in.us/ksms/PeriodicTable/yttrium.htm

But for god's sake, do your homework before acting on this one! I certainly would advise that you forget about making a ring out of something that is rare and unnatural in earths crust. If it doesn't occur in nature much at all, then you have no tolerance to it as a human. It could cause cancer or worse. Skin is semi permeable.
And as for toxic, silver is. It just doesn't enter the body as it is nearly inert. Though, it's compounds that are able to enter the body, are very poisonous, like silver nitrate. So, I'm not sure about worrying about toxic metal compounds from inert metals. Ask yourself why you want to make it, and why someone else hasn't.

A. Hi Liz. It's a matter of taste, and tastes vary. Yes, rhodium is incredibly shiny, the most reflective metal (actually raw silver is more reflective but it tarnishes), and some people like how it makes diamonds look bigger and brighter. Some people don't like it. It's all good :-)

Regards,

A. Wow! Either the world economy really is going to crash and everybody is hoarding gold, or this is the opportunity of a lifetime to buy rhodium. It was 12X as expensive as gold just a year or two ago ($12,000/oz.), and today it's 2/3 the price of gold ($1150/oz.)?!
Regards,

A. I have been able to cast Rhodium rings but it is extremely difficult. The most challenging part is melting the metal as the extra 300 °C puts it beyond most Induction Melters. For Jewelers, Rhodium is so hard it takes about 12 new saw blades to cut through the sprue. RH is a beautiful, extreme white hard metal but is much too brittle for prongs. Several small movements of the metal will cause the prongs to break. In refining of PGM group, the usual results are baby powder fine powders or sponge. The melting temp. (2200 °C) is beyond most torches and the pressure involved will skater the expensive powder. Melting fine powders is very difficult for most commercial Induction Melters and continued efforts usually results in a fried Induction Melter as the powder is too fine to absorb the radiation and results with the energy returning back into the machine. From experience, this can be a very expensive experiment.

Also, Rhodium is not a very friendly alloying material. It does not mix well with other metals. Again, another expensive experiment. However, I have had some success but it goes well beyond normal jewelry manufacturing methods. About the only use that I can see is for plain jewelry such as wedding bands. Rethinking my methods and have not given up my experiments.

It's a great question, I have sought for Rhodium wedding and engagement rings to no avail and ended up settling for platinum despite not being price sensitive -- just did not seem to be accessible. As I was living in Singapore at the time I had to get the platinum in from Hong Kong and very few Traditional Indians work with that so was a challenge in itself.

What I have learnt through my work and mining engineering background is that Rhodium is very illiquid as a commodity, hence the price spikes in history, it's a byproduct of other rare earth mineral mining and not the driver. The biggest users are of course for car catalytic converters, but its still a minor for them; you try forward hedging Rhodium and see the difficulties mostly for security -- it's a buy now and lease transaction. You can see why commercial jewelers would not want to sit on inventory, or take fixed price orders on future supply, but I can't understand why there is not more of a niche market for the price insensitive. Hats off to the mails I read where people succeeded in getting what they wanted.

A. Hi Liz. I don't think any precious metal is bad for skin, but white gold rings often have a lot of nickel in them (nickel is not a precious metal) and lots of people are allergic to it. I heard a spokeswoman from Avon say that an estimated 40% of young women have acquired a nickel allergy (perhaps because piercings are so common today?).
Luck & Regards,


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

A. Solomon,
I checked the current price for platinum = $1442.00 per troy oz. Rhodium is at $1050.00 per troy. Source = Johnson Matthey platinum group daily metal pricing.

Thanks Mark. There ya go, folks, if you paid $10,000 per ounce for rhodium 7 years ago and it's worth $1050 now, you're not very happy.

Regards,

A. Hi Sam. I'm no metallurgist and it's been 50 years since I took my only metallurgy course -- but the thing is, you can't make alloys by mixing molten metals in any arbitrary percentage you desire. Those two metals are only miscible in each other up to a very low percentage (much like you can dissolve a teaspoon of salt in a quart of water, but you can't dissolve 5 pounds).

You can use scholar.google.com to look for abstracts of insightful articles on the subject of gold-rhodium alloys, but you'll probably have to pay to view the articles. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Sam. Your thread is still here and we welcome responses from someone who knows more about the topic than me ... but what I was implying is that from my limited knowledge you cannot melt rhodium and gold together because, except to a very tiny degree, they won't mix. So, assuming I'm not wrong, you are asking people to relate their practical experiences in doing what can't be done :-)

Regards,

Hi Sam

Gold/rhodium has been used in jewellery.

You can find some reports of its properties here:

https://www.technology.matthey.com/pdf/pmr-v6-i3-106-111.pdf

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Ed. note: See also
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19870007312.pdf

courtesy Kitco.com)

A. Hi all,

I'm Chad and have invested in a few pounds of .999 pure rhodium. You can buy rhodium bullion in Pamp bars from companies like Kitco or even, more recently, in 1 oz officially-minted coins (see, e.g.: https://goldsilver.be/en/platinum-pd-rhodium/1894-1-oz-rhodium-dragon-tuvalu-100.html).

As others have indicated, M. Obama, but also Ashton Kutcher each have a rhodium wedding ring/band.

While it is difficult to work with (beyond simple plating) in jewelry due to its high melting point and lack of malleability, it can be done with the right equipment. Whereas rhodium has demonstrated relatively significant price volatility over the years, I would point out that, contrary to popular belief (as has been espoused in this blog in earlier posts), rhodium is mined in its own right for its own value, in addition to its role in platinum mining.

South Africa is responsible for having mined about 80 percent of the world's rhodium supply, with Russia accounting for the majority of the remainder and North America the rest.

While I just conceded that rhodium often suffers from non-trivial price volatility, if one is to think of its rarity in terms of relative time, the availability and supply of rhodium within the earth's crust amounts to but one single minute during the span of over 1,900 years! That corresponds with much higher scarcity than any other precious metal, including iridium, ruthenium, palladium, platinum (rhodium is in the same, "platinum," class of metals as these ones), gold, and silver.

Plus, rhodium doesn't corrode or scratch and is naturally lustrous; for these reasons, alone, coupled with its natural rarity (rhodium's price volatility has been exclusively driven by demand, not by the dearth in supply), I personally think it's worth finding the right jeweler and investing in a one-of-a-kind wedding band.

For those of you claiming rhodium is toxic, you are incorrect. Yes, some compounds composed of charged rhodium ion combinations such as rhodium chloride, the salt, can be toxic, but pure rhodium is not at all toxic or carcinogenic!

Alternatively, as one jeweler previously commented, one can much more easily construct a ring made of an alloy of rhodium with another precious metal such as platinum (e.g., in the suggested 80:20 ratio in rhodium's favor).

Hope this information helps!