What to Know About Jewelry Metals

When choosing a metal for your jewelry, consider what color metal suits your tastes.

White Metal

If white metal works best for you, think about how often you’ll wear it, maintaining the item, cost and long-term wearability

White precious metals include sterling silver, platinum, palladium and white gold. 

Sterling Silver

Sterling silver, the most reflective of the natural white metals, while beautiful and inexpensive, it is a softer material and requires cleaning with a silver cleaner. Not ideal for setting expensive stones due to its soft nature.

Some sterling jewelry may demand a rhodium plating to aid in its wearability. This will also need a bit of maintenance and require special care in cleaning. 

Platinum Jewelry Metal

Platinum, known for its use in art deco jewelry.  Has a natural grey undertone. While durable, it is also a heavy choice for jewelry items. Sometimes not suitable for large statement pieces.  It becomes more popular when gold prices are high and platinum prices are low. Weighing 2.5 times than pure gold, it can increase your costs fast in larger pieces. 

Palladium

Palladium, again, has a natural grey undertone. It can give a muddy look to its overall look after some wear and tear. Probably not for you if you love a bright white metal choice. While it definitely can be polished to perfection, it probably won’t last long with wear requiring some maintenance at the shop.

It’s a great choice for men who love the darker, alternative metals but still want a valuable precious metal for their jewelry. 

White Gold

White gold, definitely the most popular choice in white metals. It can also require a bit of maintenance with rhodium plating required.

It is a strong, bright white metal choice.

14kt vs 18kt

14 kt is the way to go with white gold. 18 kt is softer and gold’s natural is to return to its original form, which is yellow. 18 kt being 75 percent gold, you may be stopping in often for maintenance.

If yellow or rose has your heart skipping a beat, know both color choices are great for 14 kt designs.  You may want to think twice about 18 kt in rose gold.  That copper alloy already makes rose gold softer and combined with the heat from your hands can be a less desirable option for rings.