[Jewelry making - Article 00281] - Re: [Orchid] Rhodium plating platinum?

[Michael R. Mathews Sr.]

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    Gold. For thousands of years man has changed the color by adding
    other metals so that it becomes a desirable color or has desirable
    attributes. Royal Yellow, Pink, Rose, White. Oh yes what of White?
    White gold the brittle bitch. Of all the jewelry metals that I have
    ever used, Nickel White gold is the one I like the least. Over the
    years these colors become industry standards, basically what the
    consumer expects and wants. If you polish out the nicks and scratches
    on that item time and time again the color of the alloy is not going
    to change (other than patina of that alloyed metal which can be
    removed with polishing). Selling items as Karat white gold that are
    made from metal that is not what the consumer would consider white
    and having an "Applied" surface that will not stand up to normal wear
    and gives a false impression of the true color of the metal or metals
    that the item is made of is in my opinion "An unfair trade practice"
    or as we like to say down here in the south "shoving down the
    consumers throat what we think we cannot change about mass produced
    lines of jewelry". We as the trusted experts in the jewelry industry
    are failing our customers by selling them falsely colored jewelry
    items under the misnomer of White gold or worse, we convince them
    that this is just as good. It's not just that casting nickel white
    alloys are against the law in our European countries. The true reason
    we all see as much "Off-Colored White" Karat jewelry as we do is
    because these alloys are a better metal for casting. Defect rates go
    down porosity is all but eliminated incomplete casting trees are
    rare. it all boils down to dollars. If you are a jewelry repair
    person and you work on white gold you will need a plating setup! that
    is the simple truth of it and the guys who are paying your salary are
    the ones who just want the money. Maybe the reason that this was able
    to happen at all was due to poor understanding of jewelry design  and
    materials by the jewelry store owners. What would you do if one of
    the lines you carried started setting diamonds in silver in many of
    the pieces? It's a very popular line. Millions of women wear it
    daily. They are already selling Fashion jewelry because it's silver.
    Ok it's designer fashion jewelry so it's worth more, but diamonds set
    in silver??? Rhodium plated though.

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