White Gold

There is no such thing as white gold!

White gold is usually from gold, silver and nickel and sometimes palladium.

white gold rings

There are however gold alloys which appear white, silvery, or grey.

When jewellers speak of white gold, they mean white gold alloys. In most other major languages these alloys are described as grey rather than white. We will stick to "white".

White Gold Alloys with Nickel. White gold alloys became fashionable in the 1920's, mainly as a substitute for platinum, which had itself recently become fashionable.

Platinum is quite expensive, needs greater temperatures than gold, and is generally considered harder to work with than gold, although it is ideal for use in diamond settings. At least three patents were issued for different "recipes" of white gold alloys during the 1920's, using different components to produce the whitening or "bleaching" effect.

Simply mixing a white and a yellow metal together does not just produce a pale yellow colour, alloying produces a difference in the atomic structure which alters the reflectivity of light of different wavelengths.”

 white gold