anyone a jewller? or know much about precious metals

Looking to purchase some wedding rings for myself and the mrs, been to a lot of jewellers and just want a unbiased answer about metals, 3 choices palladium, white gold and platinum. Claire's engagement ring is platinum.

i know platinum is the most expensive as its very rare, white gold is just yellow gold with some palladium or other white metal to make it white (and needs recoating every few years), now palladium is the query, its the same family as platinum but much cheaper and most shops say its just a fad and will not have much value in the future. But palladium has now been hallmarked as a precious metal.

Just after some views on the metals and what ppl would recommend

p.s. i am after a specific ring being made so if anyone is a jeweller please pm me if you make bespoke rings

Cant claim to be an expert, but i wouldnt go for white gold, you will never get around to getting it sorted when it needs it and it just ends up looking tired.

Personally i went for a titanium/platinum ring for myself, and more traditional yellow gold for my mrs, and were are both happy

[Richie]

you could always go for something like these...

sorry for the derail.
Good luck in your quest. they can also make wedding band to your requirements.

I was told by the jeweller that Palladium is harder than Platinum so will wear better.

I asked for a Palladium ring, but the hallmark is Platinum. Not that I really care.

Claire's rings are white gold, and they need to be replated with Rhodium every couple of years.


Lifted from another website...

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.
The commonest metal which causes a significant bleaching effect in gold is nickel, which has the great advantage of being inexpensive, and also providing, in 18 carat alloys, a good colour match for platinum, however its colour matching in 14 and 9 carat alloys is poor. It also has the serious defect that it commonly causes dermatitis, through allergic reactions when worn in contact with the skin. It is also considered to be slightly carcinogenic. E.C. Regulations covering the use of nickel in jewellery are being implemented, and soon all or most new jewellery sold in the Community will have to be nickel-free, or at least "nickel-safe". Most American and Italian white gold alloys use nickel.
A typical nickel containing white gold alloy might be, in parts per thousand:
Gold 750, Copper 55, Nickel 145, Zinc 50

White Gold Alloys with Palladium
The other metal which is ideal as a constituent of white gold alloys is palladium, which is a close relative of platinum. Its main disadvantage is that it is quite expensive, indeed at the time of writing this, the market price of palladium was higher than that of gold, due to Russian economic and production problems. Its second disadvantage is the high melting point, although jewellery manufacturing and repair equipment has improved, so that most workshops can now cope. A hidden factor in the high cost of alloy components is that there are large proportions of scrap produced during jewellery manufacture. Because this involves expensive precious metal alloys, recycling and reclamation of the precious metals is very important. When scrap contains high levels of expensive metals like palladium, there are extra costs involved in recovering it, which have to be added back to the production costs.
Other possible whiteners include silver, platinum, chromium, cobalt, tin, zinc, and indium. Silver would be an ideal constituent, with excellent working properties, but unfortunately it does not have a very great bleaching effect. Copper does not tend to whiten, but is used to improve the ductility of most white gold alloys.
A typical palladium containing white gold alloy might be, in parts per thousand:
Gold 750, Silver 40, Copper 40, Palladium 170

I think if the engagement ring is platinum, her wedding ring should be the same, otherwise when it does start to wear, it'll look very odd indeed.

I bought my wifes engagement ring from Harriet Kelsall - http://www.hkjewellery.co.uk/ I can't recommend her highly enough. I spent about 2 hours with Harriet chatting about diamonds, platinum/white gold, the mount etc and she gave me exactly what I wanted.
We then both went up there and got our wedding rings made (again, Platinum) and there were loads more options than I expected.

Harriet has become very sucessful now, and has a number of shops (with great staff) - I've bought a few things from her and it's all been great quality.

[Stu]

Originally Posted by rpwoodman

I think if the engagement ring is platinum, her wedding ring should be the same,

+1 weding & engament rings should be the same carat if yellow gold so I would be very surprised if you could get away with different metals.

Oh & congrats

[Bri w]

Mrs B was a jeweller and she sez don't get rings of different metals next to each other as the harder one will wear the softer metal relatively quickly.

She also says the choice of metal is entirely up to personal preference. Her wedding band is/was her Grans and is v old (a bit like her actually) yellow gold and looks good. She also has a Rose gold (reddish tint) ring, which looks ugly. She has white gold rings but rarely wears them so can't comment on the wear factor. Platinum is harder than gold and will last ok but she doesn't have any as they're not her favourite colour - "too harsh" apparently.

Good luck

Mine's white gold and after 23 years it looks cack.

[johnnyrod]

Mrs. Rod's are white gold and they start to look a bit rubbish quite quickly. My mate got palladium but I think it suffers a similar fate. I went for platinum, it'll always look good. Palladium is indeed just a fad. I'm not a jeweller but I am a chemist.

[Littlepeahead]

It's true you have to be careful if the two rings are next to each other on a finger the harder wearing metal will wear down the softer one.

I can recommend Harriet Kelsall, she took my Grandmother's 1920's engagement ring, which was almost worn through, and incorporated it into a wide band in white gold so my engagement ring and wedding ring are all in one. Unfortunately I subsequently found out I have an allergy to gold so I rarely wear it - so don't make that mistake!

http://www.hkjewellery.co.uk/

Her work is beautiful and you will have something unique that suits you.