Thursday, March 25, 2010

What the heck are rhodium eroders?

Have any of you heard this phrase before???

Apparently, some people wear the rhodium plating off their white gold rings faster than others. The ones who wear away the rhodium fastest are 'rhodium eroders.'

Dr. Cowgirl and PK have both been alarmed to find the white gold of their year-old engagement rings turning yellow. I've noticed that the inside of my engagement ring is getting a yellowish tint, too.

Though rhodium is known to wear off, and white gold rings are supposed to need re-plating every so often, we thought it was on the order of 5-7 years, not annually. Apparently, re-plating the rings hurts them, because the gold is sanded down (thus removed!) before the new rhodium plating is applied. Getting the ring re-plated every year would soon cause it to vanish into nothing!

Brilliant Earth has suggested waiting as long as possible to get the rings re-plated. This doesn't seem to be an ideal solution if the rings are not looking their best. Anyone know anything about getting white gold rings re-plated???

4 comments:

Color Me Green said...

this is totally unrelated, esp since i know nothing about jewelry, but i saw this post called the barefoot philosophy on zen habits and thought of you!
http://zenhabits.net/2010/03/barefoot-philosophy/

elizabeth said...

yeah, totally! see above :)

I suspect that you were writing this comment just as I was reading the post and posting the link above. synchronicity! thanks for thinking of me :)

Anonymous said...

I have a yellow gold engagement ring, so maybe my perspective is warped, but I actually think there is something appealing about a slightly worn finish on white gold jewelry.

Anyway, I'd talk to a jeweler about it. There may be secret tricks to keeping the finish on longer. I've also heard that rhodium platings can be done in different thicknesses, so that is something to look into.

Amberdawn said...

Makes me wish I just went with yellow gold instead of 2 tone. Maybe I should stick with yellow for my wedding band.