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What makes platinum so good for jewelry?

Platinum is an excellent metal to use in jewelry making.

Like gold, platinum is extremely non-reactive which means it will not tarnish or rust. 

Here are some of the other advantages of platinum jewelry: 

  • It has a soft white color like white gold or silver. However unlike silver, it won't tarnish.
  • It is white like white gold, but white gold has a rhodium plating that wears off and shows the yellow underneath; then it has to be re-plated. Platinum jewelry is naturally white, so it never needs to be re-plated.
  • Platinum is hypo-allergenic. Many people have allergies to gold or to the alloy metals such as nickel that are used to make 14K or 18K gold. Platinum does not cause an allergic reaction in most people
  • Platinum is harder than gold. On the Moh's hardness scale, gold has a hardness of 2 to 2.5. Platinum has a hardness of 4.5, so it won't scratch or dent as easily as gold
  • Most platinum jewelry is made of 90% platinum and 10% other metals. This gives the jewelry a very heavy feel, like gold since platinum is almost exactly the same weight as gold
However, there are a couple of disadvantages:

  • Platinum jewelry is typically more expensive than gold jewelry. Even though the metal itself tends to be less expensive that pure gold, platinum jewelry has a much higher percentage of the precious metal than gold jewelry. 14K gold is 58% gold and 42% other metals. Most platinum jewelry is 90% platinum.
  • Platinum jewlery tends to bend or morph a little more than gold. This is also because platinum jewelry is made with a higher precious metal content than gold.
So for beautiful, white metal jewelry, if it is within your budget, platinum is an excellent choice

In our next entry, you can read about the advantages and disadvantages of silver.

If you are shopping for platinum jewelry, please visit our site at

https://www.viridiangold.com/platpendants.html

https://www.viridiangold.com/platinum-crosses.html

https://www.viridiangold.com/platchain.html


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