Rhodium Plating & Gilding

Rhodium

 

Rhodium (Rh) is a platinum group metal, and is commonly used to plate white gold jewellery. It gives white gold a brighter, silvery white colour. It is also used occasionally on silver jewellery. It is an inert metal and does not tarnish, but can wear off over time.

 

White Gold cannot be mined, but is a result of yellow gold being mixed or alloyed with a white metal such as palladium or silver. Inevitably a small amount of yellow colour is still evident in even the whitest alloys, so this is why we rhodium plate rings.

 

Any 18ct White Gold jewellery made by Timothy Roe Fine Jewellery will be made using a special high palladium alloy which is even whiter than a standard white gold alloy, and will show less of a colour difference when the rhodium wears off.

 

All white gold jewellery made in our workshops is rhodium plated unless otherwise requested.

 

How quickly rhodium plating will wear off from your jewellery is hugely dependent on how you wear the jewellery.

(Please note the picture opposite shows a ring that has been emery papered and polished, as well as rhodium plated).

 

Gilding

 

Gilding is a very thin, high carat gold plating we can apply to your jewellery in our workshops. It can help enhance the ‘yellowness’ of yellow gold and is often used on gold chains. It is however very thin, and for instance, if used to plate a silver ring, would begin to show through after a relatively short period of time and wear.