Gold Wedding Bands
Gold! The very name brings up images of wealth, beauty and long lasting value. Gold wedding bands are among the most popular not only because of tradition, but because those practices grew out of simple recognition of gold's great worth.
There are good and simple reasons this magnificent material is so highly valued as a base for wedding bands. Gold never tarnishes. It is scratch resistant and doesn't produce any allergic reaction. And, not least, it is supremely beautiful.
But pure gold (24 karat) is also somewhat soft. So, in order to make it useful for a wedding ring, which is expected to last for generations, it is alloyed with other metals. Thus the total gold content of a ring is less than 100%. When it's about 58%, the result is 14kt. (14/24 x 100% = 58.3%.)
It may be alloyed with palladium, for example. Palladium, with superb hardness and capable of long duration, is often used in the manufacture of gold wedding bands. It provides the stiffness and increased scratch resistance that pure gold does not. At the same time, it allows for beautiful variations in tone and a larger array of designs.
White gold, for example, is an alloy that may be formed from a blending of gold with silver or palladium. A particularly hard form is created by coating the ring with rhodium, a metal similar to platinum. The coating does wear off gradually, however, and will need to be replaced periodically. An 18kt white gold ring will be composed of about 75% pure gold with 25% other metal.
Note that platinum is a completely different element, and doesn't go into making white gold, even though the appearance of the two rings is sometimes similar.
Yellow gold may form by allowing more of gold's natural color to dominate the mixture, especially near the surface. But typically, the color is the result of blending pure gold with copper or zinc. In different mixtures, the result may be rose gold.
Because of this alloy process, gold wedding bands can incorporate a million unique designs.
A plain gold wedding band is anything but ordinary. It shows itself in simple elegance, with nothing more needed to bring on envious looks. But it can be enhanced in a thousand different ways.
A simple milgrain scrollwork can form a classic looking wedding band. A row of simple diamonds can easily be embedded along the sides of a main stone or as the chief feature. There is an endless array of purely geometric alternatives, such as stripes, hash marks, rectangles and more. These design elements open up the possibilities so that every wedding band can be unique.
And, after all, shouldn't your gold wedding ring be as one-of-a-kind as you?
