Who writes this & why should i listen to them?
At what colour grade does a diamond look noticeably yellow?
This is the first of 3 blogs I will post about diamond grading. I hope you find them useful…..
Diamonds are graded alphabetically from ‘D’ (the perfect, colourless diamond) down to ‘Z’. As the colours get further into the alphabet they get more & more yellowy/brown.
Many web sites tell you about the colour grading scale but what does it mean in reality? The question that experts rarely answer is ‘When does a diamond start to look yellow?’. This is a slightly subjective question, but in my experience most people notice a slight yellow tint around the colour ‘J’ (all be it quite a subtle one). This is very important. Many people research diamonds on the internet, find out that ‘D’ is the perfect colour & then think that only this or maybe an ‘E’ will do. This is fine if you have a substantial budget but if not, you could be sacrificing a lot of the diamonds carat weight & size by choosing such a high colour grade whilst trying not to blow the budget!
I would never recommend going for a very low colour just to get a ‘huge rock’ but on the other hand it’s worth remembering that even an ‘H’ colour is a very white diamond. When buying a diamond you should definitely know where your money is going but do take a moment to just simply think ‘do I love that diamond?’
Why does white gold change colour with wear?
Why does white gold change colour with wear? This is a question that I’m asked almost every day at the shop. It is almost like a dirty little secret in the jewellery trade that white gold is actually not as white as it seems in a shop window. The reason for this is that almost all jewellers plate it with another metal called ‘rhodium’ & this is my pet hate!
So why is white gold plated? The reason is that the only colour of gold you can mine from the earth is yellow gold. All that makes it into rose, yellow, or white gold is the alloys that are mixed with it. Now here’s the important part…..if the jeweller uses slightly cheaper alloys then the white gold that is produced is surprisingly yellowy in colour so it is then plated. Please note - if a jewellery shop plates their white gold they are doing nothing wrong at all. Surprisingly, it is totally standard practice in the jewellery trade.
Does the rhodium plating protect the white gold? No, it’s purely cosmetic.
How long does rhodium plating last? Most jewellers will tell you that rhodium plating will last you for at least a year but this is nonsense! The true answer is it depends on how you wear your jewellery (i.e. if you use chemicals at work or have a very manual job it will wear of quicker). With most people though, the rhodium only lasts a few months & it wears away on back of the ring first. Remember - every time the rhodium wears off you will have to pay to replate it!
So is absolutely all white gold plated? Most is, but not all. At my shop (RING ‘shameless plug’ jewellers) we work differently with white gold. We use a higher palladium content when the metal is at it’s molten stage which naturally whitens the metal without the need to plate it. The resulting white gold has a slightly warm hue but is not very yellow like the more mass-produced white gold.
18ct white gold unplated pink sapphire engagement ring with fitted, shaped wedding band - from RING jewellers
Are there any alternative precious metals that are naturally very white? If you want a naturally white metal that does not need plating there are 2 choices; platinum & palladium. Platinum is the rarest & heaviest of the precious metals which can make it quite expensive but palladium looks & wears remarkably similar to platinum & is a lot more reasonably priced. In fact it is cheaper than 18ct white gold.
