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Palladium - The Obvious Choice for Diamond Jewelry.
 
 The call for exchanging the gold with more suitable metal arose together with the preference of white metal over yellow. Gold has been the metal of choice for fine jewelry for millennia and is perceived as symbol of rarity, status and riches. It is still enjoying wide popularity making roughly 90% of the jewelry on the market. So why exchange it with anything else?
Gold is still the only precious metal with yellow color and the only option for the few, who favor yellow Jewelry, but when it comes to white is definitely not the best option. Currently the style is white, very white, especially when we consider diamond jewelry and it makes sense to utilize white metal for white jewelry instead of yellow.
What about white gold?
Well, white gold is not exactly white, that`s why it need to be rhodium plated. White gold is pure yellow gold forced into white color by alloying it with whitening metals and the most popular whitening metal is. . . yes that`s right palladium
What are the characteristics of the perfect metal for white diamond jewelry?
• It must have the right color. It should be as white as possible without grayish or yellow overtone
• It must be rare and precious
• It must have the adequate mechanical properties making it suitable for gem mounting and high polish
• It must be hypoallergenic and scratch proof
I have been designing and doing fine jewelry for many years, working with various precious metals. Originally it was gold (yellow, white and rose) in 9, 14 and 18k, then platinum and lately palladium. My hands on experience with most of the metals in the jewelry industry grants me the capability to compare and professionally evaluate them. Here is my view of 18k white gold, Platinum and Palladium based on the four characteristics above:
Color
While palladium and platinum are indistinguishable by color, gold is easy to single out. The higher the gold content (karat) the more difficult is to bleach gold`s rich yellowness. Gold features unique precious metal qualities and if the gold content is reduced in order to achieve whiter color the resulted alloy stops to resemble the original precious metal properties. High purities white gold are impossible (there is no 22k white gold) with 75% (18k) being the highest. Even the best white gold alloy is not white enough and has to be rhodium plated. Rhodium plating is a surface treatment and it will wear off.
Purity
Platinum and palladium have by nature the greatest clean of overtone white color and hence they are used in nearly pure form (95%). The alloying 5% are usually also metals from the PGMs (Platinum Group Metals) Ruthenium and Iridium being the first option. This results in 100% noble metal content in the ready item. The highest purity white gold alloy has only 75 % gold and often this is the only precious metal included. Palladium gold alloys bring this percent to about 87.5, but still very far from 100% noble metal content. Jewelry with 100% noble metal content features some very essential qualities: It never stains, changes color and it is entirely hypoallergenic. Many white gold alloys content nickel, a metal recognized to cause allergy reactions.
Rare and precious
Any one of the three metals compared in this article is rare and precious. Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium are the only metals with ISO (International Organization of Standardization) currency code. The price of any of these metals is determined by many factors associated primarily to their availability and demand and is matter of daily change. At the time of the writing their price order is: Platinum, Gold, Palladium and Silver. This order was different only few years ago. In the close of 2001 Palladium was right at the top outpricing both - gold and platinum. Platinum is statistically 15 times rarer than gold. Palladium is even rarer.
Mechanical Properties
I don`t want to infuse my article with technical information and I will try to keep this at the possible minimum. As well as for attaining of wanted color as in the instance of karat gold, the precious metals are alloyed with other metals in order to achieve some mechanical properties that render them suitable for jewelry manufacturing. The perfect jewelry metal should be tough, abrasion proof and suitable for high polish. Palladium meets perfectly all the criteria.
Now strait to the cost issue: Palladium finished item is priced per gram in the vicinity of 14k gold and sometimes lower. Compared to platinum which is the closest rival in appearance and quality, its cost is about 1/3 of the cost of platinum finished item. Because of its lighter weight however, it comes even cheaper. The current low price of palladium is set to break loose soon and is wise to take advantage of it.
The following question comes naturally: What are the shortcomings? As there is nothing perfect, palladium also have a weak spot. It is more difficult to fabricate and picky in terms of technology and materials used in the process. The good news however, is that in no means this difficulties pass to the client nor the maintenance of the item after the purchase. From the clients viewpoint palladium just has all the right qualities.
The final point is the availability. Palladium is still very young as solo jewelry media. It is closely related to popularity and cost. As the popularity springs up, which is predictable looking at the advantages of this metal, so will its availability and regrettably its price.
 For quality selection of remarkably well priced palladium rings visit the first on the net palladium only website http://www.palladiumdiamondring.com
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Your host Vasco Kirov
Award winning jewelry designer
and master goldsmith
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