Palladium Facts
Palladium is the obvious choice for diamond jewellery.
 The call for substituting the gold with more suitable metal arose together with the developed taste for white metal over yellow. Gold has been the metal of choice for fine jewelry for millennia and is still perceived as symbol of rareness, status and riches. It is still enjoying great popularity making roughly 90% of the jewellery on the market. So why change it with anything else?
Gold is still the only precious metal with yellow color and the only alternative for the few, who prefer yellow jewellery, but when it comes to white is definitely not the better alternative. Currently the trend is white, very white, particularly when we consider diamond jewellery and it makes sense to utilize white metal for white jewelry rather than yellow.
How about white gold?
Well, white gold is not precisely white, that`s why it need to be rhodium plated. White gold is pure yellow gold forced into white color by alloying it with whitening metals and the most common whitening metal is. . . yes that`s right palladium
What are the characteristics of the perfect metal for white diamond jewelry?
• It must have the right color. It should be as white as possible without gray or yellowish overtone
• It must be rare and precious
• It must have the right mechanical properties making it suitable for gemstone mounting and high polish
• It must be hypoallergenic and scratch proof
I have been designing and producing fine jewelry for many years, working with various precious metals. First it was gold (yellow, white and rose) in 9, 14 and 18k, then platinum and recently palladium. My hands on experience with most of the metals in the jewellery industry give me the capability to compare and professionally evaluate them. Here is my view of 18k white gold, Platinum and Palladium based on the four characteristics above:
Color
While palladium and platinum are undistinguishable by color, gold is easy to separate. The higher the gold content (karat) the more tricky is to bleach gold`s deep yellowness. Gold possesses unique precious metal qualities and if the gold content is reduced in order to achieve whiter color the resulted alloy ceases to resemble the prime precious metal`s properties. High purities white gold are impossible (there is no 22k white gold) with 75% (18k) representing the highest. Even the best white gold alloy is not white enough and has to be rhodium plated. Rhodium plating is a surface treatment and it wears off.
Purity
Platinum and palladium have by nature the best clean of overtone white color and hence they are used in nearly pure form (95%). The alloying 5% are commonly also metals from the PGMs (Platinum Group Metals) Ruthenium and Iridium being the first option. This leaves us with 100% noble metal content in the ready item. The highest purity white gold alloy has only 75 % gold and often this is the only precious metal included. Palladium gold alloys take this percent to about 87.5, but still very far from 100% noble metal content.
Jewellery with 100% noble metal content holds numerous very critical qualities: It never tarnishes, shifts color and it is entirely hypoallergenic. Many white gold alloys content nickel , a metal known to cause allergy reactions.
Rare and precious
Any one of the three metals compared in this article is rare and precious. Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium are the only metals with ISO (International Organization of Standardization) currency code. The price of any of these metals is shaped by many factors connected mainly to their availability and demand and is subject of day-to-day change. At the time of the writing their price order is: Platinum, Gold, Palladium and Silver. This arrangement was different just a couple of years ago. In the end of 2001 Palladium went straight at the top outpricing both - gold and platinum. Platinum is statistically 15 times rarer than gold. Palladium is even rarer.
Mechanical Properties
I don`t wish to infuse my article with technical information, but I will try to keep it at the possible minimum. Besides the achieving of desired color as in the case of karat gold, the precious metals are alloyed with other metals in order to attain some mechanical properties that render them fit for jewellery manufacturing. The ideal jewellery metal should be tough, scratch proof and suitable for high polish. Palladium fits absolutely all the criteria.
Now strait to the price issue: Palladium complete item is priced per gram in the vicinity of 14k gold and sometimes lower. Compared to platinum which is the closest rival in appearance and quality, its cost is between 1/3 and 1/2 of the price per gram finished item. Because of its lighter weight however, it comes even cheaper if compared with corresponding platinum item. The current low price of palladium is set to explode soon and is smart to take advantage of it.
The following question comes naturally: What are the shortcomings? As there is nothing perfect, palladium also have a weak point. It is trickier to fabricate and fussy in terms of technology and materials used in the process. The good news nevertheless, is that in no means these difficulties pass to the customer nor the maintenance of the item after the purchase. From the customers viewpoint palladium simply has all the good qualities.
The last point is the availability. Palladium is still very new as solo jewelry media. It is closely related to popularity and cost. As the popularity grows, which is predictable considering the advantages of this metal, so will its availability and unfortunately its price.
|
