Precious Metals
Gold, Platinum, and Silver
There is a great deal of mystique about these metals. Why? They are rare, they look nice, many stories have been written about them, many people have lost their lives over them, wars have been fought for them, they are worked with the help of fire... The list could go on forever. Probably the main reason is that they are plain, simple, beautiful metals. They are clean metals; they do not oxidize or rot. In ordinary jewelry, none of these metals are used in their pure form. For various reasons, they are mixed with other metals. By mixing different metals, I create an alloy. This mixing process is very important for us goldsmiths because it allows me to create different physical conditions which I need in to create various effects, such as hardness, color,and price.
Gold alloys
The standard gold alloy is a mixture of gold, silver, and copper. Pure gold is too soft for reasonable jewelry use. A pure gold ring would bend and become dented very quickly. In some Asian countries, pure gold is used. The gold is by far the most expensive metal in this alloy. The price for fine gold fluctuates around $500 per ounce at this time. Fine silver runs around $7 per ounce,and copper is marginal. Here are the most commonly used alloy types. As you can see, the gold is the most important component.
You can see the the amounts of pure gold in each alloy. Each of these alloys -- 18K, 14K, and 10K, can appear in colors ranging from white over yellow, to red gold. The color is determined by the proportion of the alloy metals silver and copper. White gold has very little or no copper in it. Standard yellow gold is almost half silver and copper. Red gold contains, as you can guess by now, mostly copper. This is a very basic explanation of gold alloys. It should help you to understand the terms 18 karat, or 583 gold, and the colors. In reality, there are great variations in the alloy metals. Silver, for example, is often replaced with nickel and palladium for white gold. Titanium is added to alloys, and so on. It would be too much for this presentation to go into more detail.
Platinum
Platinum is a very nice metal to work with. Due to its properties, I work it almost pure. Platinum is worked in two alloys: 900 Pt. and 950 Pt. I use the 950 Pt., which contains 950/000 of pure platinum. Because of its high melting point (which is approximately 3,250 Fahrenheit), working with platinum requires special skills and techniques. Properly finished platinum has a very nice luster and shine to it. Platinum doesn't have to be dull and matte, which is the easiest way to finish the metal. Sometimes the matte finish looks good, and it is justified. I think platinum is the most noble of the metals. Platinum jewelry is usually heavier jewelry because of the high specific weight of the metal (21.45).
Silver
Silver lends itself to making very affordable, nice jewelry. I use it with 18 karat gold accents and gems. Most of the value in silver jewelry is in the labor.
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