Caring for your Gold
Gold was one of the first metals discovered by humans in ancient times. Although it has been used for centuries in many different applications, one of the most popular uses for gold is in jewelry.
Gold Jewelry
Gold is a perfect metal in jewelry because it will never rust, tarnish, or corrode, and it is very strong. Furthermore, gold is extremely malleable, allowing it to be made into virtually any shape. Because of this, gold jewelry comes in all shapes and sizes.Karatage
Pure gold is not strong enough to withstand day-to-day tasks, so it is mixed with metals such as copper, silver, nickel, and zinc to make it more durable, and to make it stronger. Because of its rarity, and this alloying, a system known as Karatage was developed to determine the amount of actual gold in a piece of metal. As Karatage is expressed in 24ths, 24k gold is 100% pure. In jewelry, gold is most commonly found in either 14 or 18 karats. 18k gold contains more gold than 14k (75% vs. 58.3%), and so it is more expensive. Most of the gold you will find at Lux Bond & Green is either 14k or 18k.Colors
Though pure gold is yellow in color, when alloyed with other metals, gold can be made into a variety of colors including white, rose, blue, green, and even purple. In jewelry, the most common colors are yellow, white, and rose.- White gold is often plated with rhodium, a shiny white metal that is extremely hard, to increase the gold's whiteness.
- Rose gold gets its color from the copper that it is alloyed with. The rose color can vary from piece to piece, and usually exhibits a beautiful pinkish-rose color.