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How long would or should rhodium plating last? Consumer experiences required

How long did the rhodium plating last?

  • Under a year

    Votes: 1 100.0%
  • One to one and a half years

    Votes: 1 100.0%
  • More then one and a half years

    Votes: 1 100.0%
  • Still white and counting (what metal is your ring?)

    Votes: 1 100.0%

  • Total voters
    1
  • Poll closed .
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PhillipSchmidt

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Nov 26, 2004
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667
From my own experience in general, people who bought white gold rings noted they had started to discolour within a few years, sometimes after less then a year.

Of course, there is no simple answer to the question. It depends on the thickness of the plating, and the precise conditions under which it was applied. How bad the discolouration may be depends on the colour of the substrate, that is the actual metal that the ring is made from.

I am wondering if people here would like to post their experiences with w/g plating.

There have been numerous threads, but really it is such a hard question to answer with all the variables.

Perhaps people who want to answer this could also let us know what the metal plated was.

Was it: 9k, 14k, 18k and platinum, was it white gold, is there a PD stamp or was is yellowish-even yellow.

(That would cover one variable, thickness of the rhodium and the quality of the plating bath and general cleanliness are equally important)

Cheers
 
HI:

Not a ring, but a diamond tennis bracelet which metal base was 14K yellow gold. Plated in 2000, the bracelet is worn daily (same wrist as my watch) and is still "white". Also plated a heavy 10K neck chain in 2001 and it looks wonderfully white still.

cheers--Sharon
 
My rings are going to be three years old next month. 14k white gold but a high end setting. Still look incredibly white, no yellow showing yet.
 
I have a 14K yellow gold and diamond RHR. Got it rhodium plated as I wear mainly wg and plat jewelry now. It lasted about 3 years, then I could see tinges of yellow, so just had it replated a few weeks ago. Also had a formerly two tone (wg and yg) tennis bracelet plated so we''ll see how that goes.
 
All my white gold rings are 14K. If I don''t have them sized, they stay white forever - or at least as long as I have had them. So far my oldest unsized ring I have had for 3 years and wore it amost every day until Christmas when I got my new e-ring.

However, I have found that if I do have them sized, they start to yellow within a month or so. So I insist that all my rings come from the manufacturer in the proper size. Fortunately for me, I have a finger that fits most rings right out of the showcase. Only have had to special order once.
 
My white gold that was supposedly "never going to yellow" was totally yellowed within a month. I had to get those things replated every freaking month. It wasn''t done right obvously but it ruined me for white gold. Never again will I buy it.
 
Of course I don't Dave - thanks.

Thanks everybody.

I have never thought to plate nickel under rhodium (though I remember Steve mentioning it regarding silver). I have definately noticed thicker plating on imported jewellery and now I think I know why. Thanks!

It is a big deal how well the rhodium was plated. All the things you have mentioned make the difference and there also is a knack if I can say that. This is why I don't do it myself but have it done. The guy I use likes to plate and buff and plate again which suits me fine. I have had a bath on hand at times and I cut my teeth gold-plating and underplating with nickel etc, but I don't do enough to warrent setting myself up with a bath and the expensive solution and taking up even more valuable space, (though I still have the rectifyer)...

There is not much w/g around (unless imported) that is not white and the platinum here is white too, so I dare say, as the plating wears off nobody will be able to tell by the colour alone.

Right now I am replacing a w/gold bezel head with a platinum head. It was heavily plated but it still tarnished. The shoulders that had been added are not gold!!!

Thank you all,

Keep em coming!
 
I chose "6 months" because that was the closest to how quickly mine turned yellow.

My e-ring is 18 k white gold and my FI purchased it in June 2004. It was presented to me in September 2004, and worn everyday since (not at night or during cleaning/laundry/shower/etc.) I noticed it starting to yellow on the underside of the ring about 1 month after receiving it. I took it in Dec 04 to be rhodium plated again, thinking that when my FI had it sized (he guessed wrong), they neglected to re-plate it. I had it re-plated and was very happy with how it looked.

1-2 months later (app. 6 weeks or so) I noticed it yellowing again (only on the underside of the ring, not prongs or top).
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Any suggestions? I don''t want to give it up every 3 months to be re-plated!
 
My aunts and grandmother all have 18K white and all are still white as platinum and never needed any plating. My white gold was 10, 14 and 18 and not a single one stayed remotely white longer than 2 weeks.
 
A few weeks. That''s too shoddy for words.

There are two main methods I know of.

1: a full plating kit, using a heated tank and three solutions for cleaning as well as plating.
2: a touch up pen, it still electroplates, but it is a cheap affordable way to brighten up retips etc.

The only way to do it so badly, I think, is to use age old solutions and clean nothing!

The original colour and the relevent alloys matter a lot too.
 
I hear complaints about white gold turning gray, not yellow ... What is that all about ?

Also, something called "gray gold" seems more popular around here and that is the white metal my jeweler uses.
 
I haven''t seen the yellowish w/g for years except on -1995 jewellery. Though batches of it are still about

There is some terrible palladium w/g around though, very grey. It oxidises to a black colour and you have to electrically strip it to get it off. Or polish it off.

It polishes up quite well and it''s fairly hard (Most palladium alloys I see are very white). I don''t know if that is the one your hearing about. I''d have thought it would take rhodium well.

I have been trying to get the low down on alloys for so long, but the experts I talk to all have differing oppinions. There is a lot of difference between similar alloys, it hard to know.
 
I was given a wg ring 2 and half years ago. It had to be reseized becuase it was too big for me. By christmas I could tell where I had the ring sized I can tell exactly it was sized beucased only that part of the ring that has turned yellow. However i have other peices which are white gold and they still have not turned even a wee bit yellow.
 
You make a good point Matatora. The new section sounds like a different metal and a yellower one.

A test could end this thread. (As far as plating on different metals).

I could make 5 rings:
-Grey Palladium
-White palladium, either 12.5% or 15.5%
-That yellow stuff - just had a trade customer bring 6 rings with stunning diamonds to be set and this woefull alloy I had to ask, is that supposed to white or gold!
-Nickel White gold

That ought to do.

Make some thin bands, solder them up. Do a good job with the rhodium and let it fly...
 
I have a 14k wg wedding band and ering. The wedding band wears to a slight yellowing about once a year ( I''ve been married two years, had it replated once each year). The ering is better, I just had that replated last month for the first time. But I am nuerotic about them, I turn them in at the slightest yellowing I notice! I don''t really mind it though, my main concern is having them bright.
 
I have only one white gold ring and that is my ering. Its 14K wg and it started yellowing within the first six months. I know that I am solely to blame because I am so hard on rings. I take it in to have the prongs tightened/checked every six months or so and they always replate it for me free of charge. I had noticed in the past that it was ''whiter'' afterwards but didn''t know that they had replated it until this last visit and that''s only because it was so yellow when I took it in and white white when they gave it back to me that it was so obvious. So nice of them
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. Plus it is a great excuse to hang out around the display cases for longer than usual.
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Date: 4/10/2005 6:11
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7 AM
Author: valeria101
I hear complaints about white gold turning gray, not yellow ... What is that all about ?

Also, something called ''gray gold'' seems more popular around here and that is the white metal my jeweler uses.
The inner prongs of mine did that. They would actually look cloudy. I never thought that could be what it was. Glad the rest of my ring doesn''t do that.

Oh, and just to clarify..my ring has never been reset in a new setting. I can''t seem to make up my mind on what I want. The setting that it''s in is the display ring that it was in inside the case. So, I do know that they said that there isn''t as much put into those settings (in relation to the plating) because the diamond is usually switched out into a permanent setting.

As hard as I am on rings it''s a pretty sturdy setting so I have no complaints about it other than it being plain-jane. And as I said in the previous post, I know it yellows because of how I am with it. Plus after reading some it may have something to do with my body chemistry. I am pretty acidic.
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My engagement ring and wedding band are both 14k white gold. After about 6 months of daily wear, I noticed yellowing on my engagement ring but I think it had a lot to do with resizing. I had it replated and have been wearing both for the last six months and do not notice any yellowing yet. I assume I''ll need to have them plated annually when I bring them in for their checkups!
 
Date: 4/10/2005 6:33:10 AM
Author: Platinumsmith
I haven''t seen the yellowish w/g for years except on -1995 jewellery. Though batches of it are still about

There is some terrible palladium w/g around though, very grey. It oxidises to a black colour and you have to electrically strip it to get it off. Or polish it off.

It polishes up quite well and it''s fairly hard (Most palladium alloys I see are very white). I don''t know if that is the one your hearing about. I''d have thought it would take rhodium well.

I have been trying to get the low down on alloys for so long, but the experts I talk to all have differing oppinions. There is a lot of difference between similar alloys, it hard to know.
Hi Platinumsmith,

The white gold of palladium alloy you mentions that turns black is because it have excess silver content, I make my own white gold alloy with palladium and the metal is almost as white as the platinum, never tarnishes and you never need to rhodium plate.
Rhodium plating is a very important process in the jewelry business, rhodium is a very hard metal that is harder to scratch that the base white gold or platinum.
Rhodium plating is used not only to cover any flaw in different color or solder joints but in the jewerly stores this gives an extra protection to the pieces that are in the show rooms, this pieces are touched, tried, and handled by several people every day and you must clean them very often to keep them always like new.

Without the rhodium plate bath all this pieces could be scratched just from the continuous cleaning even with a soft cloth or a chamois and the rhodium protects them from this micro scratching that can make a new piece to look used.

A good rhodium plating needs a good preparation of the base metal, polishing is very important but electro-degrasing the piece and giving the piece a pre flash of rhodium to have a very thin deposit that anchors very hard to the base metal is very important.
Some use to do a nickel flash but if you do a rhodium flash this is exactly the same thing, you will have a strong base for your final rhodium plating, this is like the primer coat in a paint, it promotes the adhesion of the paint to the base.
The nickel base when the rhodium is wear out and the nickel base is exposed can cause skin irritation and also will make in some people to tint the skin green.
A nickel base is used in many galvanic process but it is not good for jewelry.

The time that a rhodium plating will last deppends how good the rhodium plating was done, it is not really how thick the rhodium is because you can have a very thick rhodium plate that will peel off like skin because it have a very poor adhesion to the base metal, maybe some have seen this in chrome that can peel off like skin showing the copper base.
A good bright rhodium deposit is done at low amperage and more time but the most important is to have a strong adhesion of the base.
 
Thanks Juan,

The specific ''too'' grey palladium that I am talking about wouldn''t pickle, and as silver pickles well enough (doesn''t stay black!) I am not sure that is what it is. When I say it polishes well, I should add it doesn''t oxidise, so for pre-polished hand made jewellery it isn''t bad.

How well it keeps its plating I don''t know.

I recently changed a head for plat because the customer had problems with the shoulders going black in the swimming pool. I have my suspicions that this is the same metal. It had been plated.

The guy who does my plating - plates, polishes, plates and has had no trouble plating bulky items or necklaces with many components and these are things I am not used to being done near as well. What you say about flash plating is obviously true and I appreciate you taking the time to show us how it is done.

Good points all through your post - thanks.

Do you think that the base metal has much affect on the adherance of the plating. IE: will platinum groups take rhodium better and to that point alloys with rhodium in them? Ignoring the colour issue, what of gold, copper etc? Have you ever had a chance to test that?

Cheers,

Phillip
 
Hi Phillip,

Yes, the base metal is important for the rhodium adhesion, in general all the noble metals like copper, nickel, and all the precious have the best adhesion to the rhodium but a very important step in the process is the degrasing it is an electro striping with the inverse polarity anode and catode with a special degrasing solution, after this, nothing but distilled water must be used to rinse the piece, then the first flash of rhodium and then the final bath.

btw. I saw a picture of your work bench, this is almost identical to mine in design, a deep half moon, mine is about 100 years old in mahogany and very heavy, later I will send you a picture for your bench collection.
 
Hi Juan.

The standard rhodium units usually have three baths for this purpose. I have noticed a different colour and quality of finish with competing brands of rhodium solution though. I like to plate platinum and I definately like the more platinum like colour.

I get what you are saying about the base metal. I have plated yellow gold, silver, plat and w/g but never copper etc.

100 y/old mahogany & heavy! nice...

My new bench is a mix of timbers from Nyaton, Tassie oak (Australian hardwood) marine ply and Cypress pine. Nothing too extravagant, but it took three months to make and coat (5 coats of two pack on the top!). I have long since stopped worring about scratching it. The one I think you have seen I made in a few days. A lot of luck was involved. I could say 6 months as I was using it when it was just the frame I knocked up to get by. It is mostly made of bits of timber that I tripped over and the drawers are ammunition cases from WW2 (which my co-worker was in!) which just happened to make a perfect fit. In many respects the second desk was a better one. For one thing, being made without a plan it had much more hiding spaces and I built a few neat ones in.

You can see I like carpentry!

I took a look at your site last time you posted and checked out the custom jewellery. You have been doing some nice work. Good to see you are taking the time to make jewellery the way it should be made.

Thanks for your post re: emerald earrings. I have been doing some setting for the trade lately as I needed a break from all the custom work. Now I need a break from setting! Not as young as I used to be, hmmm need to be...
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Anyway, I have a few nice ones on the way and that is the rewarding (all be it painful) part of our job.
 
A ring I have had for about 4 years but have never worn but sits in my jewellery box is 18k white gold rhodium plated. I notice today when I took it out of the ring roll that the rhodium plating has started to corrode and the yellow look of the white gold is showing through. It is mostly on the ring in the area where the jewellers sticky label used to be. Would the glue from the label have done this to it? The label was taken off in the shop at time of purchase but the ring was not cleaned and the black gum was sticking to it. Or would this be due to the age of the ring that the rhodium has started to deteriorate although the ring has just sat in a jewellery box?

A jeweller told me rhodium plating should last on a ring about 2 years, but ofcourse that is a ring being worn which mine has not been.
 
I have no idea Pyramid. That surprises me a little. I can''t see how glue could affect the rhodium?

My first thought was that had already had the ring in the window without the rhodium and it also had a sticker in the same spot and when they decided to rhodium plate it they did with the same gum mark, which if not cleaned off properly would leave an area which wouldn''t plate well at the same spot?

That doesn''t account for why or how it would erode after time whilst never being worn.

I would have thought, if it there. It is there. Just less of it. Rhodium should not do that??

Why don''t you wear it?
 
Thank you Platinumsmith. It was bought from a chain store so I don''t suppose they would have put it for re-plating as I notice when pieces have been in for a while they appear in their Sale but then I don''t know how they work with older stock.

I have never worn this ring because it is too big for my middle finger and I never got around to re-sizing it. When I bought it, I thought it was the correct size but that was in the middle of summer and my finger may have been swollen or something.

I found this older post on pricescope and now think it may be what the poster wrote in her second post. I cannot see an area where the rhodium is peeling away just marks and ofcourse there is no scratching because the ring was not worn. I had thought that it was such a thin plating I would not see edges where it may have peeled but this now makes me think it is tarnish as it looks light yellow. I am in the UK though so I don''t know what mix is used on the ring but the store does say on a card in the window that their white gold is an off-white colour rhodium plated.
They also rhodium plate for free as that is written on a card to be presented with the ring.

This is not an expensive ring it was about $600.

The older post:

https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/prevent-metal-tarnishing-specifically-white-gold-w-rhodium.18104/=
 
I often like to use rhodium plating, but I don''t think rhodium will ever hide the sins of poorly coloured (cheap W/G) gold forever. It is often used to hide badly coloured white gold and I personally hate the very idea, especially since I use it on metal that is very white and definitely not for that purpose.

That is my declaimer.

I just happen to like the way it brightens metal and in wearable parts it won''t last but in a white metal, who can tell. It will last under discolouring solder joins. Under the diamonds it still shines, especially where it has been done before setting, then after.

I like the colour. I am using a particularly white platinum that is close to rhodium in colour and it polishes so well I am now addicted to it. My w/g is less white but not so far as you would see it wear away.

To the point. I don''t know what to tell you. I read the post and I am sure there is something to be gained by that!

I am still learning...

After all, I am still in the same position as before?

I started this thread because - I DON''T KNOW.

The more you tell mew, the more I know, and I appreciate that
 
Thank you again Platinumsmith. As I said it is not an expensive ring so it does not bother me. When it is sized they will probably cover it up then anyway.
 
I have a wonderful 14K filiagre ring that I wear 24/7 on my right hand. It is 14K white gold. I have had worn it almost everyday for the past..almost 4 years. Only recently have I started to notice a little yellowing.
 
MINE

That is the ideal situation you have there. I wouldn''t mind if rhodium lasted 2 years even as the jewellers told me. I will have to get the ring I mentioned sized and start wearing it to see how it goes.
 
Getting late on this discussion on white gold and rhodium plating. Just joined Pricescope. Having been in the fine jewelry business for 46 years I might have a few suggestions on your white gold issues.

White gold is made by mixing nickel with the gold. One company I deal with uses Palladium to make gold white and it does not need rhodium to keep it white.

Unfortunately they do not make custom. They have great solitaires and some fancy rings of their own design. Also channel set anniversary rings.

Now there are other companies doing Super White and other branded names for specially alloyed white gold to avoid the yellowing effect. Now we can custom make any ring design using the Super White. Hopefully more manufacturers will adopt this and also avoid the problem of nickel allergy reactions.

Jack Schatzley

[email protected]
 
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