Considering Palladium - Anyone NOT recommend it?

[find45di2]

So I have been trying to decide on White Gold or Platinum, and my jeweler suggested I consider Palladium. My Girlfriend wants White Gold, but she has no clue about the whole Rhodium plating, and how it wears off with time. So now I am shopping the Platinum/Palladium option.

I''ve searched the forums and see that tons of wearers say they love Palladium and are happy with it. While the jewelers on the board seem to think it greys out and is not easily polished back like platinum is.

Can someone give me some feedback on Palladium? Can Palladium later be Rhodium plated like white gold if it discolored too much?

I really want to consider Palladium for its benefits over white gold, but don''t want to cut myself short of platinum if its benefits that that much better.

Thoughts?

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

the heft of palladium is very light an tinny, that is its main downfall

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I read an article that said it was used during war because of platinum being used for something related to the war, and that palladium would never be the metal of choice if others are available. That pretty much turned me off of palladium. I''d go with platinum or 18k white gold.

 

[ericad]

I would consider palladium for other pieces, but for an e-ring, I''d go with platinum or WG. Platinum would be my first choice, though.

 

[find45di2]

I read that some of the Palladium is mixed with white gold which gives it a different look as well. One thing I read that really turned me off what that it seems like people say that eventually Palladium gets tarnished and can't be polished back to beauty like Platinum can, is this so? Could you Rhodium plate Palladium if it ever got dull?

A question is, white gold scratches and is a softer metal and wears so maybe Palladium is a better metal to have under the Rhodium?? I'm not even sure if Palladium is stronger, or less prone to actually scratching or not. Seems like the properties of Palladium may be a bit superior to White Gold , but a little under Platinum based on what I've read and how you look at it. Is Palladium superior to White Gold? Would it make sense to get Palladium and Rhodium plate it?

 

[WorkingHardforSmallRewards]

Date: 9/2/2007 6:28:26 AM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)
the heft of palladium is very light an tinny, that is its main downfall

hummm...Gary, I am afraid that Tinny is a TERRIBLE descriptor of palladium. I have handled my fiances palladium ring quite a bit, and not once have I ever found it to be tinny...all though to tell you the truth I am mostly going on connotation as that term seem quite vague and nondescript. Exactly what properties of tin are you trying to assocaite with palladium here as tin has quite a number of properties in its own right?...it certainly doesnt sound or feel tinny when I hold or even thump the little guy though...


And as far as the weight thats just not reasonable either. No it doesnt weigh nearly as much as platinum but nobody in the world is going to be able to heft a normal Ering and tell any weight difference at all between palladium and White gold. And personally, I prefer to wear lighter metals myself, though I am not a woman I suppose, but I can def see the lighter weight being an ADVANTAGE over platinum, and I suspect that if it werent for the Platinum guilds excellent campaigning the heft of platinum would quickly have become a disadvantage rather than the mark of prestige it is today. I dont have extensive knowledge in fine jewelery, but I believe in most jewelery, aside from platinum, in say (since I recently got a pretty nice one) the world of watches, arent the trends heading towards the lighter metals? At any rate whether someone would prefer the lighter weight of white gold rings and palladium rings over platinum is really a personal choice, but certainly palladium is not losing out to WG in that respect.


To the guy who started the thread. The WG/Palladium alloy you mentioned is simply called WG. However, one common form of WG is Gold (which is yellow) alloyed with nickel to give it a whiter appearance, that has recently changed largely because of fairly recent technological developments that have made casting rings out of palladium a very real and much more practical alternative. This technological advancement combined with what I can only call the growing awareness of nickel allergies, and then the fact that Gold alloyed with palladium is whiter than Gold alloyed with Nickel makes palladium the obvious choice of metal to alloy with Gold and thus create a WG ring. Then throw on top of it the fact that palladium is a precious metal in itself and the Gold/Palladium alloy is hands down the champ over Gold/Nickel you know?


But, there is no reason why your palladium ring can not be maintained and kept beautiful just like any other ring. What you are probably referring to is that when you use a torch to do work on palladium it turns dark, whereas platinum does not, and it requires skill and experience to know how to handle the polishing and additional steps to work with palladium.

Thus, if you have a local jeweler in your region who

A) has years of experience working with palladium using a torch and knows how to maintain it properly or
B) uses a laser and Argon gas to do his work

Then you should have no problems what soever. Palladium, from my research and experience has a quite a few advantages over WG. One is that it doesnt require replating. I am not a fan of the idea of paying for one metal, and then covering it up with another. That is how WG works, you pay for the gold, which at best is giong to run about 75% pure, then you cover it up with rhodium and you cant even see the metal you paid so much for because rhodium plating is what actually gives it the white appearance everyone has come to expect with WG. I just dont like that myself to much, though it isnt a terrible thing, and it introduces the whole matter of her seeing her WG ring turn yellow and wonder whats going on. Some peoples body chemistry can also cause the plating to wear of more quickly than others do.

Then there is also the matter of who does the replating, as some people do it better than others, though if you go to a decent jeweler that shouldnt be a problem.

Palladium is a nonreactive metal so you dont have to worry about alergies developing as you would if you got the Gold/Nickel (WG) alternative (though here Gold/Palladium would work well to) and it also means you dont have to worry about what you are using to clean it with or if you go swimming with it or are doing dishes or whatever, if she wants to wear it she doesnt have to worry about the chemicals or cleaning process nearly as much, in particular because she doesnt have to worry about upkeep of her rhodium plating.

Palladium is part of the platinum family. This means first to me that, because of the recent technological developments and growing familiarity of palladium in the U.S. marketplace that palladium prices will probably rise in the not to distant future--I may be wrong of course since its the future we are talking about, but I think being part of the platinum family and being approx 95% pure in most of its alloy states (which means alot to some, but thats up to you) then it will probably take off pretty well when given a bit more time.

On that same line I understand, though I could have learned incorrectly, that palladium has several other properties similar to platinum such as when scratched it doesnt actually SCRATCH so much as it does just push metals around.

And if you like the idea of patina it will have a patina build up like platinum does. I personally hate patina but...

One downside though is that palladium is giong to be a bit softer than most platinum alloys. It really depends on exactly how it is cast. If all is cast the same it will probably be slightly softer than both WG or platinum, but not far behind and still quite hard in its own right. on that same line, I havent gotten to find out for sure yet, but I am hoping that because it is slightly softer that will make it easier to polish and buff out to remove the patina when it comes time for me to get that done, but I dont know about that yet.


Further, nice palladium/ruthenium alloy looks VERY VERY VERY similar in color to most of the palladium you will see out there. That means that you can feel free to get a platinum head and not have any visual two-tone effect. Whereas if you were to get WG then you would either have to rhodium plate everything including the platinum head, or if you liked the cream color of WG unpalted (as I do myself) then you would have a two-tone effect caused by a platinum head, which to my eye isnt so appealing.

And finally, if you really want it to look like WG you can in fact get it rhodium plated, but I gather that the process is somewhat different than with Gold in that it requires somewhat more through cleaning or something...I am not sure of the details, anyway, you can do it but you would want to talk to a few jewelers and hopefully find someone with some experience or knowledge on plating palladium.



Anyway, all three are great options in my opinion, but I chose palladium because nobody can see the visual difference between it an platinum, all the reasons mentioned above, I didnt like the downsides of WG and I couldn`t afford platinum. My girlfriend loves it too by the way.

Oh, and one thing that I didntm mention. about 95% of the time you will never see a visual difference between most platinum alloys and palladium, but there are a few times such as in a dark corridor with dimly lit rooms on either end where the palladium does look slightly darker and slightly grayer than platinum. Its very slight, but it is present because there is no light reflecting off the metals and the metal is very slightly darker than platinum, but to be honest, the few times I have noticed the difference and sought it out to test the difference I have really appreciated it because it is also in those type of diffused dimly lit environments that the diamond shines the whitest and brightest, and for me that very subtle contrast between the VERY slightly darker metal and brilliance of the diamond is a real plus. But to be honest, I dont think your fiance would ever notice it, even if she were wearing a platinum band next to it, unless she knew exactly what to look for it would just look like a momentary play of light and shadows.

But the most important thing to remember, in my opinion is if you can not find someone near you who has experience with palladium or the right tools and is willing to do it...someone who is willing to polish it for you occasionaly and do any resizing you might need down the line, then don`t even think about it.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

I''m doing a little experiment on palladium vs. platinum myself.

I did a ton of research on this myself (both here and talking with local jewellers) and it seems that the major difference between palladium an and platinum is that palladium is about 40% lighter and slightly less prone to scratching. The jewellers I spoke with said that because palladium comes from the platinum familym, it is a white metal and won''t fade over time.

This is the thing: my engagement ring and my eternity band are set in platinum. I KNOW that platinum is very strong and durable and it has been proven over time--though palladium has been around for over half of a decade, my FI really didn''t want to use it for either of my rings.

I seriously considered getting palladium for our plain matching bands, but didn''t want to take the risk on my FI''s band. I went ahead and got him a nice platinum wedding band, but decided to buy my matching wedding band in palladium. I''m going to see how it wears over time (though I''ll probably be wearing the eternity wedding band more often) and I figure that if I don''t like the way it wears in a year or two or however many, then I can simply replace it with a platinum band.

I felt that getting palladium as a band (as opposed to an e-ring with prongs) was a safer choice. Platinum is much heftier, so if that is important to you, it''s the way go to. I don''t think that palladium is any less strong, but if it would make you feel better, you could always have the prongs done in platinum.

Sorry I don''t have more info, I''m interested to see how my palladium band will wear.

 

[find45di2]

Wow! Great feedback everyone and THANKS for taking the time to write all of that up WorkingHardforSmallRewards.

It seems like Palladium is sounding more and more appealing and practical. I would be perfectly happy with WG if it didn''t need to be Rhodium plated when worn. I like the idea that Platinum and Palladium will hold their color and just need to be maintained and polished. The obvious difference is that Platinum costs a ton more than Palladium.

It is hard to break from the marketing ploys so that is why I want to consider Platinum, but my Girlfriend says that she likes White Gold. The only thing I don''t like about White Gold is that it needs to be replated and hearing that some people''s body chemistry leaves the ring to need to be replated every few month bothers me. So I am considering Palladium more and more.

Decisions Decisions