White Gold

White gold is real gold alloyed with white metals until the yellow drops out of it: palladium, silver, sometimes nickel and zinc. On its own the result is not white but a faint warm gray. Nearly every piece is finished with rhodium, a hard bright metal from the platinum family, applied in a plating bath. That layer is what you actually see.

Rhodium goes on at roughly 0.75 to 1 micron on jewelry, thin enough to wear through where metal rubs. On a ring worn every day the underside of the shank usually shows a warm shadow within one to two years. Earrings and pendants can go a decade because nothing abrades them. Re-plating is a routine bench job, usually under a hundred dollars, and it restores the finish completely.

The pay-off is optical. A white setting and a white stone blend into one bright mass, so diamonds look larger and cleaner than they do in yellow. The costs are the upkeep and an alloy question you cannot see. Nickel alloyed white gold is a common cause of contact reactions, and once the rhodium thins the nickel reaches skin. Palladium white gold avoids that and costs more, so ask which one you are buying.

White gold begins as refined gold melted with whitening metals. Palladium gives the cleanest color and the softest, most workable alloy. Nickel is cheaper, whitens strongly and produces a harder metal that holds prong tips well, which is why it persists in mass production. Silver and zinc appear in most recipes as balancing metals.

The alloy is cast or stamped, filed and polished like any gold. Next the piece is cleaned in an ultrasonic bath, given an electric charge and lowered into a solution of rhodium salts. Current drives an extremely hard layer onto every exposed surface in under a minute. Because the metal is deposited by electricity rather than rubbed on, it reaches detail that polishing cannot. It can also be reapplied to a finished, stone set piece without dismantling it.