Information
about gold and gold jewellery care
Gold
is the first thing that comes to mind when we think of precious metals. It has
been used for thousands of years in making lavish jewellery and decorations. It
is a luxurious, yet still affordable precious metal that is most commonly used
in fine jewellery.
Karat
gold
Pure
gold is too soft to be of much use in jewellery making. Therefore, gold is mixed
with other metals and then used to make jewellery. The resulting alloy is known
as "karat gold". Karat is a measure of the proportion of gold used
in the alloy, and is expressed in parts out of 24. It is not the same as "carat"
which is used to measure the weight of diamonds and gemstones.
Pure
gold is 24 karats.
18
karat gold is 18/24th or 75% pure gold.
14
karat gold is 14/24th or 58.3% pure gold
10
karat gold is 10/24th or 41.7% pure gold
Karat
is usually abbreviated to K, so 10 karat gold is expressed as 10K gold.
Most
countries have laws regarding what can be called real gold. For example in US,
gold has to be at least 10 karat to be called "real gold". In Australia,
Canada and the UK the minimum is 9 karats. In Germany it is 8 karats.
Higher
karat gold is generally more expensive. 18 karat gold is usually used in high
end fine jewellery. Gold above 18 karats is rare, although in some countries (for
example India) 22 karat gold is used.
Gold
stamps
Solid
gold is often stamped or branded, either with its karat symbol or with the percentage
representating the carat.
The
stamps for gold are as follows:
417
- 10K gold
585 - 14K gold
750 - 18K gold
You
may have noticed that the stamp for the 14K gold is slightly higher than the
actual percentage of pure gold in that karatage. This is because in Europe there
is a practice of putting a slightly higher percentage of gold into what we call
14K gold (ie they put 58.5% instead of 58.3%). That's the official version anyway
- the unofficial version is that someone hit the wrong button on their calculator!
Gold
Colour
Pure
gold is always yellow. But because it needs to be mixed with other metals to
be made into jewellery, these additions can be used to modify the colour of gold,
giving us different white, rose and yellow gold shades. White gold, which was
originally designed to imitate the very precious and expensive platinum has
become very popular in recent years.
Caring
for Gold Jewelry
Gold
is one of the most inert elements on the planet. In its pure form it does not
rust, interact with other elements or even dissolve in acid (this is one of
those "don't try this at home" experiments).
However,
pure gold is not used in jewellery. Karat gold can interact with elements and
gold jewellery should not be brought into contact with corrosive substances, soaps,
household cleaning agents, hairsprays, perfumes and similar substances. It is
always a good idea to take off your gold rings and chains in shower or bath.
Also,
remember that, even as karat gold, gold is still a soft metal. It is best to
avoid situations where your gold items can be scratched, torn or otherwise damaged.
Gold should always be cleaned with a soft cloth and never with an abbrasive
cleaning agent.
