Soft Platinum?!?

[pacmantravis]

Hey there, this is my first post on this forum and Im happy to be here

I have a question.

Everywhere I read and everyone I talk tells me that platinum is "harder" than white gold. Is this true? Reason I ask is because the ring that I bought my girlfriend always gets bent out of shape.

It is a small channel ring (size 4) with diamonds around half of the ring. She used to have a similar ring in white gold and she tells me that that ring never got bent out of shape. This platinum one that I bought her has been bent out of shape 3 times since I bought it. She says that it gets bent out of shape when she is wearing in and puts pressure on her hand (i.e. going up a ladder).

It worries me that I may have been duped and may have bought a ring of a different metal.

Any ideas?

 

[Mara]

run a search on here about platinum...it is a very hard metal but you CAN bend it out of shape. It is not impervious to wear or damage. Just like diamonds are incredibly hard but if you hit them just the right way, you could have a chip.




use the 'search' function and see what other questions have had for answers..also if the band is very thin...then the ring will have more possibilities for damage than if it was thicker. the platinum could have also been mixed with another metal that is weaker and therefore weakening the entire ring. Find out what the ring contains. It should NOT just bend out of shape with regular usage...more extreme circumstances is what I would think bends a ring. I have not had this problem at all with my platinum rings but they are quite heavy.




You note diamonds..it could be that the part of the ring with the diamonds is not thick enough and therefore is susceptible to bending. I have eternity diamond bands that were made with more metal in order to support the diamonds AND keep its shape.




One story our jeweler told us was a gal who was an airline pilot and had eternity style platinum ring, and she had to pull back on the wheel with all her might to avert an accident and bent her platinum ring entirely out of shape. so it does happen! The diamonds popped out too! They remade that ring next time with more metal and it did not happen again.

 

[valeria101]

Sounds like the gold band was simply made better - it can hardly be the metal to blame here

 

[Hest88]

I wonder what the alloy is and what % of the mix? Like gold, plat by itself is very soft so it has to be mixed with another metal to be hard enough to fashion into jewelry. However, not all alloys are the same.

 

[Jeweller]

Hi,
Platinum IS softer than white gold. I use an 18ct white gold platinum/palladium alloy, which is much better wearing than platinum, but has the really white platinum colour. (and is cheaper too!)
Regards,
Tracy