METALS

 

Gold

Gold is soft, heavy metal, called a noble metal, because of its:

Its great working properties mean, it can be shaped, rolled, soldered, heated and melted to enable the goldsmith to make an infinite range of designs – with little risk of cracking or breaking.

It is not only used to make jewellery. It’s used in industry as well. Here are some examples, where the gold is used:

Gold have been worked by humans in all cultures. People buy jewellery for themselves or like a nice present. These gifts have in most cases an emotional attachment for the recipient. Typical examples of these gifts could be rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets…

Gold alloys

Gold is very soft but can be strengthened considerably by the addition of other metals. These metals are known as “the alloys”. Jewellers have used gold alloys rather then pure gold for three reasons:

Most white gold is rhodium plated to make it bright white. Rhodium is a very hard metal and allows a fine, high-polish surface. But there is one disadvantage. Rhodium does wear off eventually and needs to be re-plated every few years to keep the white gold jewellery looking nice and shiny.

The care of gold

If you purchase 750 fineness jewellery you should not have any problems. The fine gold in the alloy is in sufficient quantity for its special characteristics to prevail.

Below 750 fineness the zinc and silver present in the alloy can generate tarnish and the gold jewellery loses its brightness.

Some perfumes, hairsprays and make-up may react with the metals used in the alloy. Also some abrasive substances can damage the surface of gold.

Keep your gold jewellery separate from anything that might scratch it.

Buy a pot of jewellery cleaning solution or cleaning cloth with the correct alkaline solution for your gold jewellery.

Bring your jewellery to your local jeweller for professional cleaning and polishing from time to time. That way, they can check your jewellery and will be able to advise you of any future problems.

 

Platinum

Platinum is the most precious metal from all jewellery metals. It’s rare, pure (so it doesn’t make any allergic reaction) and shiny, noble metal.

Hard wearing guarantee of safe setting of diamonds and other gemstones. Platinum is natural white metal and keep itself shine and lustre forever in contrast to other whiter metals, which look yellow or lose their shine in time.

Engagement rings, wedding rings and rings for different occasions made from platinum, are symbols of love forever.

Platinum is fashionable, elegant and exceptional.

Our normal UK standard of 950/1000 means, that the customer is also buying a very pure alloy.

Cleaning platinum

Platinum jewellery needs very little maintenance. Just a pot of jewellery cleaning solution will keep it free from everyday grease etc.

 

Silver

Silver has lots of the same good qualities as gold, and for some purposes it is even preferable. Silver is malleable, ductile and pliable. It’s capable of being tempered which means blades for knives can be produced. Silver is lighter in weight than gold and it has the greatest reflecting ability.

Silver alloys

Like gold, silver is not used in the jewellery trade in its pure state.

Cleaning silver

Like gold, silver takes a fine polish - in fact even better because it has greater reflectivity than gold. But it does have one drawback, the tarnish.

If silver does develop a slight tarnish, then in most cases a simple wipe with a silver cleaning cloth will be sufficient to make it bright and shiny again.

 

Titanium

Titanium is a hard white metal, which is used by some modern designers for jewellery. It is light, very hard and strong and does not tarnish or corrode. Titanium can be anodised to produce a remarkable range of surface colours. These colours are purely an optical effect caused by the way the induced oxide layer reflects light.