Why are white gold consumers dissatisfied?
Because they don't know what the true color of the jewelry is when they buy it. I have seen a yellow gold ring heavily plated to look white. This was a true 14 karat yellow gold made to look white and it worked for a while. What the white gold task force did is come up with the three grade levels of white gold. Nice. But that is not the real problem. How can you tell what the jewelry looks like under the plating?
Over the years the stories some jewelers tell their customers about the yellowing of their jewelry are amazing. They say the gold is working its way up to the top. The white gold wears out to a yellow look. Or the one I dislike the most is, you made it look yellow. Your body chemistry made the jewelry turn yellow. I know most jewelry sales people only see white gold with the plating on it and assume that is its true color. Most of them don't know that jewelry manufacturers choose the white gold alloy mix. It is much cheaper to use the standard white gold alloy (again standard is the lowest) then a more white looking alloy. Most jewelry sales people don't wish to seem uninformed so they pass on what they hear, or feel what the right answer is. After all, the customer just trusted them with a sizable purchase, they must know or lose the trust.
What The White Gold Task Force did come up with is a way to classify the whiteness or yellowness of white gold. What I mean is, it depends on how you look at the charts. You can look for the yellowness of the jewelry or how white it is. Both ways can give you a grade. Following is an excerpt of the Task Force:
“Based on the white gold definition and three-part color grading system developed by the White Gold Task Force, the Whiteness Index allows manufacturers and retailers to better communicate the colors of white gold. By using this Index, retailers will be able to request that jewelry products be manufactured in Grade 1, 2 or 3 white gold, defined as follows:
| Grade 1: Good white. This grade includes alloys measuring less than 19 on the ASTM Yellowness Index, and does not require rhodium plating. |
| Grade 2: Reasonable white. This grade includes alloys measuring between 19 and 24.5 on the Yellowness Index. Rhodium plating is optional. |
| Grade 3: Poor white (incomplete bleaching). This grade includes alloys measuring 24.5 to 32 on the Yellowness Index, which do require rhodium plating. (Any alloy measuring above 32 on the Yellowness Index falls outside the "white gold" definition.)” |
Now don't think after learning the diamond's four C's you must learn the white gold grading chart. It won't help learning the chart unless you have x-ray eyes. You can't see through the rhodium plating.
For years I have been telling my clients about the problem with no real solution. I have an article on white gold versus platinum you can read that explains the issues. But now we have a solution.
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