white gold

[lizw]

My wedding ring and engagement ring are white gold. I have recently received my grandma's engagement ring in her will. It is a beautiful emerald but on a yellow gold ring. Is there a procedure to change yellow gold to white gold so I can wear it or will I have to have the ring re-set?

[calibrax]

you could try Tippex... ;) Regular 18 carat gold is actually 75% gold and 25% copper/zinc (this is done because pure gold is actually very soft). White gold is made by using silver/palladium instead of copper/zinc. So you cant really change the colour. However, white gold is usually rhodium plated to make it look whiter, because it's natural colour is a kind of grey... your jeweller will be able to rhodium plate the yellow gold ring, but I dont know if it would come out as white as you'd like... Hope this helps!

[lizw]

Thanks very much for that - I appreciate it

[woofgang]

do you just not want to wear two colours of gold together? I have yellow gold wedding and engagement rings and a white gold emerald ring which I wear together. The only thing that you have to be careful of is the carat quality of the gold, as gold gets purer, it gets softer so if you wear nine carat and eighteen carat on the same finger or next to each other, the nine will wear away the eighteen as the rings rub together. consider that the emerald may have been set in yellow gold to enhance its colour and might look quite different if you get the setting plated

[lizw]

Thanks for this - you might be right and I should give it a try - it's such a beautiful ring I don't really want to spoil it any way and what you say about colour does make sense.