March 27, 2020

White Gold Vs. Platinum

At Blackacre we like to do things properly, creating a quality product which will last a lifetime, which is why we will suggest platinum over white gold for all of our engagement rings.

What is the difference between Platinum and White Gold? Although these metals look similar, they have different properties.

Platinum is a rare, naturally white metal, which requires little polishing whereas white gold does not exist naturally. White Gold is an alloy of yellow gold mixed with palladium or silver which creates a dull silvery metal with a yellow hue, to get rid of the yellow undertone it is plated with a rare silver-white metal called rhodium.

As a metal, gold is very soft and malleable, if jewellery was created out of pure gold it would bend and lose its shape quickly, so both yellow gold and white gold are mixed with other metals to harden it. The term Karat is used to assess the purity of gold, 24K gold is considered pure gold, with 99.9% fineness, (100% is not feasible), the most common alloys of gold in jewellery is 9K, 10K, 14K and 18K. 18K is the most common metal for jewellery, which contains 75% gold and 25% other metals such as copper, zinc or nickel.

Naturally, platinum is a hard, dense and durable metal which, when purposed for jewellery is around 95% pure platinum, and is therefore also hypoallergenic. Over time, rhodium will wear off a white gold ring and will become yellowed, whereas platinum stays white, it will therefore also lose no weight over time due to re-plating. Platinum's resistance makes it a perfect metal for setting diamonds and gemstones to ensure they are secure.

We use platinum in our engagement rings to set our diamonds, this ensures that there are no warm reflections of yellow gold in the white diamond.