There is a popular misconception that platinum and white gold are both lustrous cold white metals. Wedding bands made from either of these metals do look white and do look great. Is one more suited to wedding bands than the other? Let's see.
White gold - one of the most popular metals around these days when it comes to jewelry. You should be aware that white gold is not in fact pure gold. Gold, in its purest form, is far to soft to make wedding bands from.
To make jewelry, yellow gold needs to be blended with other metals to form a suitable alloy. When measuring gold content, 24 carat equals 100% pure gold. Common gold alloys include 9 carat (often used for men's wedding bands), 14 carat, 18 carat (common for engagement rings) and 22 carat. When white gold is described as being 18 carat, it has 75% pure gold content.
A white gold alloy could contain quantities of silver, palladium, zinc, copper or nickel. It is the alloy created with nickel, zinc or palladium that produces white gold. The white gold effect is achieved through a bleaching process caused by silver or palladium. Some metals have a stronger bleaching effect than others, however they also have stronger hardening effects.
Wedding bands need to be hard so an 18 carat wedding band will have 75% pure gold, 10% palladium, 7.5% silver and 7.5% copper. This would result in an 18 carat white gold that is hard wearing and yet looks very much like platinum. You can buy very cheap versions of white gold, however, they are generally made with inferior metals and don't last as long as quality white gold.
Platinum - as precious metal, it is rarer and more expensive than pure gold. Platinum is much harder than pure gold and often needs to be alloyed to soften it a little for jewelry making purposes. Platinum is not a white metal as many imagine, it is actually light grey in color.
To get the brilliant white finish that white gold and platinum are famous for, they need to be plated with rhodium. Over time, this rhodium plating will wear away leaving the base metal behind. If you wedding band starts to lose that brilliant white finish and starts to turn light grey, it will be because the rhodium has worn away. Your platinum wedding ring will have a very light grey to off white look about it.
Platinum is more expensive than white gold, however they may both look quite cheap over time because of that rhodium plating. You can restore the white lustre to your jewelry by having the rhodium plating reapplied. So which one is better for wedding bands? White gold was created to imitate platinum. White gold is no longer considered a platinum substitute, it is popular in its own right. For those looking for a platinum substitute, be careful since white gold is almost as expensive as platinum now. If you want platinum then get platinum - there is no substitute.
If your preference is white gold, be sure it is good quality white gold made from a reputable manufacturer and not a cheap alloy. I like white gold, not because it looks like platinum, but because it looks like white gold.
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