QuestionMy husband and I are dual military, married for 3 years and finally will be having our big wedding, since we got married in a courthouse. Because we are dual military and things are done on such a short time span, my wedding ring set is white gold and when we purchased it we had no knowledge of gold really. Had I of known that white gold is rhodium plated and needed sufficent upkeep, I probably would of opted for yellow gold. However, I am going to be getting a new wedding ring set and the place we want to get it from, Blue Nile, only has yellow gold in 18 kt. Is that durable enough for a wedding ring set?
AnswerHi Fawn, 18k gold and anything below is durable enough for jewelry, anything above that (22k up) would be too soft, so if you want a higher gold to alloy ratio on your wedding ring, go with 18k. Rhodium plating is used on soft metals possessing a silvery gleam to maintain its luster and avoid tarnish. Platinum on the other hand, is already a very hard alloy which is why it doesn't need a rhodium plating.
Yellow gold though, looks drastically different from white gold so if you want a silvery gleam without having to send it in for Rhodium plating every now and then, you may want to look into Palladium. It looks almost exactly like Platinum but not as expensive. You might want to check this out:
http://www.brilliance.com/metal-education
Hope this helps!
-Jonathon
