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can wedding band be different carat than engagement ring??

  • 19-05-2008 6:04pm
    #1
    Psychic Lady
    Closed Accounts Posts: 100 ✭✭


    Hi, I was always told that your engagement and wedding rings need to be the same carat or the gold will wear away!! I was in a jewellers recently looking for a wedding ring and as my engagement ring is 18ct white gold i could not see any 18ct wedding bands that i liked until the asistant told me that this no longer applies. She informed me that white gold has some sort of protection put in them to protect against other carats wearing them away and that i could get a 9ct white gold wedding band or a platinum and it would make no difference!! im completely confused and just wondering has anyone heard of this before?? thanks!


Comments

  • #2
    username123
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,484 ✭✭✭username123


    The assistant was talking pure BS.
    Its simple science. The carat is the purity of the metal. Gold is a very soft metal, the higher the carat the purer the gold, the softer the gold.
    If you buy a wedding ring with a different carat to your engagement the lower carat will wear away the higher carat in time.
    There is no 'protection'. White gold is rhodium plated, the plating wears off in time and the gold underneath will be as soft as gold is. Platinum is a different metal altogether and much much harder again so that will definitely wear down gold next to it.


  • #3
    Psychic Lady
    Closed Accounts Posts: 100 ✭✭Psychic Lady


    username123 wrote: »
    The assistant was talking pure BS.
    Its simple science. The carat is the purity of the metal. Gold is a very soft metal, the higher the carat the purer the gold, the softer the gold.
    If you buy a wedding ring with a different carat to your engagement the lower carat will wear away the higher carat in time.
    There is no 'protection'. White gold is rhodium plated, the plating wears off in time and the gold underneath will be as soft as gold is. Platinum is a different metal altogether and much much harder again so that will definitely wear down gold next to it.

    Thanks for the advice, yes im so glad we didnt buy off her! i was very suspicious off her advice as i had always been told 2 different carats didnt work together!! you seem to know your stuff, do you work in a jewellers?


  • #4
    username123
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,484 ✭✭✭username123


    Psychic Lady wrote: »
    Thanks for the advice, yes im so glad we didnt buy off her! i was very suspicious off her advice as i had always been told 2 different carats didnt work together!! you seem to know your stuff, do you work in a jewellers?

    nope - got engaged myself before xmas and did a bit of research, also studied physics and was always interested in how metals reacted to each other (yes nerdy but comes in useful later on eh?).


  • #5
    keyes
    Closed Accounts Posts: 101 ✭✭keyes


    the assistant wasn't as wrong as you might think, but i'm not sure she understood what she was saying....

    it is possible to wear different metals together; any two rings will wear against each other, if one is much tougher than the other it will wear it down quicker.

    however you need to look at the metals and consider if the wearing will happen at a noticeable rate. the difference in properties betwen gold and platinum is very slight. platinum is slightly harder than gold, gold is slightly tougher than platinum. the two terms mean different things and are often confused; hardness is the resistance to change of shape, (ie bending or warping) toughness is resistance to fracture (scratching in the context of a ring).

    of course, this depends on the type of platinum, the alloys used, and how the metal was worked. smithing techniques can double the hardness of a metal.

    difference in colour is a very good reason to match the metals. different karats of gold have different colours. Also, white gold and platinum go different colours slightly with age, so from an aesthetic point of view it is generally best to keep to the same metal.

    and finally, the plating does nothing to enhance the hardness of the gold, it's purely to enhance the colouring of the metal.


  • #6
    Quality
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,900 ✭✭✭Quality


    Would you not consider getting a ring made to you specifications.


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  • #7
    CrazyNoob
    Closed Accounts Posts: 124 ✭✭CrazyNoob


    keyes wrote: »
    the difference in properties betwen gold and platinum is very slight. platinum is slightly harder than gold, gold is slightly tougher than platinum. the two terms mean different things and are often confused; hardness is the resistance to change of shape, (ie bending or warping) toughness is resistance to fracture (scratching in the context of a ring).

    .

    Thats not quite true - the differences are not just slight as they are fundamentally different elements.
    I'd also dispute the definitions of hardness and tougher, but its dependent on the mixtures and alloys in the ring itself.
    By most definitions, Platinum is harder than gold (Moh's/Vicker's etc) , its density is also higher
    Also by most definitions Platinum is tougher than gold, Platinum's got a higher melting point, a higher boiling point, requires more energy to change state

    Its easier to stratch gold alloys then platinum alloys


  • #8
    keyes
    Closed Accounts Posts: 101 ✭✭keyes


    CrazyNoob wrote: »
    Thats not quite true - the differences are not just slight as they are fundamentally different elements.
    I'd also dispute the definitions of hardness and tougher, but its dependent on the mixtures and alloys in the ring itself.

    the definitions are correct, though it is possible that other industries use the terms differently.

    i agree on the point about alloys, it's the same point in made in my first post. read here; http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive/200009/msg00023.htm

    though as regards platinum being harder,
    http://www.allpuregold.com/casting.htm

    the first reference also makes the point, as i did, that method of production (die casting/forging, etc) has a huge impact. i just didn't see the point about bringing boring technical data into a straightforward question, this is not a engineering forum! :)

    CrazyNoob wrote: »
    By most definitions, Platinum is harder than gold (Moh's/Vicker's etc) , its density is also higher
    Also by most definitions Platinum is tougher than gold, Platinum's got a higher melting point, a higher boiling point, requires more energy to change state

    Its easier to stratch gold alloys then platinum alloys

    i fail to see what difference a higher melting point will have on wearability of a ring beside another? refer to the first reference i posted, VS varies greatly by method of production and by alloy composition. again, this is not an engineering forum, lets not get sidetracked.

    the question asked by op was whether you can wear 2 different alloys or 2 different metals together. 25 years in the jewellery business makes me say that yes, it's possible, though people tend to prefer the same colour metals together.


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