Gold for fine jewelry
Gold, the slightly reddish yellow material was collected and mined for its pleasing physical characteristics. Dense, malleable, ductile, and virtually indestructible.
The highest award at the Olympics is gold and it is woven into our literature, fables, and even the Bible refers to it over 400 times all emphasizing the wealth, power, status, and desire of ownership.
Karat with the “K” is referring to the fineness of gold measure. In the United States anything lower than 10 karat cannot be legally be called “gold jewelry”. 14 karat gold is the minimum content for “fine jewelry”. In parts of Europe 18 karat is “fine Jewelry”. In its pure form gold is referred to as 24 karat.
Alloys are added to harden the raw material to provide a more suitable hardness to secure gems and hold up to daily wear. For Gold purity in jewelry the karat states the amount of pure gold in the alloy. 10 karat is 41.7% gold, 14 karat is 58.5% gold, and 18 karat is 75% gold. Gold can be alloyed to alter the color, most common is Red/Rose, Green, and White.
Often we have stated, “everyone understands gold” meaning when you see a piece of yellow jewelry you know it is gold…..unless your finger turns green from the plating wearing off. What we mean is gold is understood to be an incomparable material and color.
Shown here is a 18k ring next to a 14k ring. Both have the warm glow but with a different intensity.
When we would have a Platinum and diamond or colored gemstone ring in the case and had the request to “see that silver ring”? The confusion is easy with many white metals. Silver, Platinum, Palladium, and White Gold. While all precious metals it can be hard to distinguish at a glance. However, each metal preforms as jewelry quite differently. We will touch on that in a later post.
Ma Mo Is committed to ethical sourcing and environmental sustainability. All of our Gold and Precious metals are 100% certified recycled. As a standard, our minimum is 14 Karat, and 18 Karat is favored for our creations for it’s purity and richness of color. All of our work is stamped with our Ma Mo hallmark and the Karat purity. We use only the best alloys to ensure the richest of yellows and the brightest of whites.
If you have any questions regarding the Gold in our Jewelry, just send us a message. For more information on Gold check out the World Gold Council.
We will touch on the white metals and metal performance in future posts, so stay tuned…..
