White Gold Engagement ring

Noggin_1

I've always found the term 'white gold' to be rather misleading. Gold is yellow naturally on only comes in yellow. 'White gold' is just the yellow gold which has been plated with rhodium or a similar metal see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_gold#White_gold
I owned a 'white gold' ring in the past and found that I had to have it re-plated a couple of times a year.
I don't recommend them as wedding rings as it would be cheaper to buy a platinum one in the long run, providing your marriage lasts:rotfl:

When my OH gets round to proposing I'll be dropping subtle hints at platinum;)

pinkshoes

Most white gold rings need re-coating after about 3 years. 4 months is a little too soon, unless you've been frantically rubbing it (!?), so I'd take it back and ask them to re-coat it for free.

I'm far too lazy to get this done, so my engagement ring is made from Palladium, which is the same family as platinum (so much harder wearing), but only a fraction more expensive than white gold, and will never go yellow.

Idiophreak

pinkshoes wrote: »

I'm far too lazy to get this done, so my engagement ring is made from Palladium, which is the same family as platinum (so much harder wearing), but only a fraction more expensive than white gold, and will never go yellow.

Plus, if you ever have shrapnel inching its way toward your heart, you can use your engagement ring to power an arc reactor in your chest...

cats2012

Not really adding anything new here, but my engagement ring is white gold because the same ring in platinum was a lot more expensive and would have meant my OH taking a loan, something I would never have wanted.

We've been engaged 18 months and no sign of change yet, I'm plannnig to get it replated in March when we get married so it matches my wedding ring and can replate both and once in future, but don't expect it to be very often.

In conclusion = complain if it needs it after 4 month!!

NouveauRiche

I've had my 18ct white engagement ring since 1974, and it still looks the same as when we bought it. I wore it all the time for 20 years, ('til we divorced) and now I only wear it on special occasions. My wedding ring is 9ct white gold, and even though the pattern wore a bit, the rhodium plating has stayed the same. I never took particular care of them. I'd never heard of this plating wearing off before!

Am I just lucky? Surely I'm not the only one!

alleycat`

NouveauRiche wrote: »

I've had my 18ct white engagement ring since 1974, and it still looks the same as when we bought it. I wore it all the time for 20 years, ('til we divorced) and now I only wear it on special occasions. My wedding ring is 9ct white gold, and even though the pattern wore a bit, the rhodium plating has stayed the same. I never took particular care of them. I'd never heard of this plating wearing off before!

Am I just lucky? Surely I'm not the only one!

It is unlikely it looks like it did back in 1974, no matter how much you think it does :-)

Mine is 18ct white gold and i'm 100% sure it looked a lot shinier / brighter when it was new (that is only a decade ago).

It is also possible that your particular ring was coated with palladium and not rhodium.

That is somewhat harder wearing but after 30 years it'd still look seriously dull comparatively.

If you took it to a jeweller and had it re-plated I suspect you'd be surprised.

madison-nyc

i worked at a branch of h samuel for a while and we used to offer free rhodium plating if it was needed in the first 12 months. you may find that goldsmith will offer the same.

as for the comment about having silver instead , silver is way to soft to be setting expensive diamonds in , wouldn't last long at all before they'd be coming out of it.

also white gold isn't just yellow gold coated in the rhodium , white gold is a different mix to yellow gold so it is very pale compared to regular yellow gold.

InsideInsurance

My wedding band is silver, the wife's is platinum. Even on day one the metal looked different to each other and a year on that difference has grown. She does have a white gold ring as well (not engagement) and again comparing it to her platinum they look different to each other, particularly after wear. Obviously to the casual observer from a distance the three metals probably look the same.

There are several ways of making and plating white gold and depending on which have been used will dictate how pale the base metal is and how long the plating will last. My ex had a few white gold items including a ring from Goldsmiths and that was probably 5 years old before it needed replating. Another ring bought overseas was 7 years old and still looked very white still.

Replating is simple its just a pain to do it - hence not buying any white gold (or other plated metals) from me