Gold jewelry is mostly available in three different forms namely pure gold, gold plated and gold filled. It is very important for a buyer to understand the various factors effecting the quality and worth of gold. Before making the purchase it is extremely essential to learn about the two most important features of gold that differentiate its various kinds from one another.
Color Of Gold
Solid gold is found in three different colors such as yellow, white and rose pink while gold filled and gold plated jewelry is only available in yellow shade. The most commonly seen color of gold is yellow. The intensity of yellow shade depends upon the quantity of alloy metal mixed with it in order to achieve the desired weight and karat value. The yellow color of gold can vary from dark to light. The lighter the yellow color of gold the higher the karat value and the darker the shade the lesser the quantity of alloy base metal in it. For instance, 9k gold would be darker in color intensity as compared to 18 K gold.
The second available color is white. White gold is mostly used in diamond studded jewelry. It is an equally admired form of gold as its yellow counterpart. Pure gold is mixed with palladium and silver in order to get such a bright white colored gold metal. Once getting the desired metal consistency it is then coated with a metal named “rhodium”. It is due to this rhodium the gold gets its white color from. White gold is slightly more expensive than the yellow one because it is not very commonly available. Besides many advantages such as uniqueness and exclusiveness there is one major disadvantage of wearing white gold jewelry. As it is coated with rhodium, thus, it needs to be re-coated at least annually.
The other rare yet highly popular color variety of gold comes in rose pink color. This type of gold color is achieved by blending yellow gold with copper metal. This is a rather rare variety of gold and is thus highly expensive.
Hardness
The hardness of gold filled and gold plated jewelry depends upon the hardness of the base metal. However, as pure gold is very soft to be used for making jewelry articles thus, it is as hard as the amount of alloy metal in it. Thus, 18K gold would be harder than 9K gold.