QuestionHow you doing MR. Potter. My name is Juan and I'm a High School student in Boston. I'm doing a science project on jewelry and my teacher said that it was all right if I try to get information from jewelry expert. My question to you is as follow: What the different between Pure gold jewelry and carrot gold jewelry? I would kindly appreciate if you could answer my question as soon as possible. Thank you
AnswerBuenos dios Juan, Quite simply the answer to your question is purity. Pure Gold is quoted as 24kt (Carat) but today we refer to it as .99999% pure.
Although gold has all the properties of a precious metal (Resistance to acid - Excellent semi conductor - etc)it is relatively soft. If you were to place several bars of pure gold, one on top of the other the bottom bars would get squashed. This makes it useless for jewellery, so we add some impurities such as copper, zinq or iron, This gives the gold a strength.
The term "carat" relates to the purity of the gold. for instance 18ct Gold would be 75% pure gold and 25% alloy, so today it would be expressed as .750ct.
Metal refiners such as Englehard or Johnson Matthey produce a catalogue of metals for jewellers to choose from, ranging from 9ct golds (.375ct)- right through to 22ct (.915ct)and in a variety of colours. We choose the gold we want according to what we will do with it, a setting for a diamond might be 18ct White gold. This can be a very hard metal to keep the stone secure. However the ring itself might be 18ct Yellow gold, a slightly softer metal, easier for the craftsmen to work.
Hope this helps, if you need any more just ask, regards Brian.
