# How is "White" Gold made? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 13, 2007, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-white-gold-made/407871 "2007-06-13T17:01:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-white-gold-made/407871/1 "2007-06-13T17:01:30Z")
I know that gold is often alloyed with other metals (to make the metal stronger), and in the USA, 18 karat (64% gold0, and 14 karat (685 GOLD) ARE POPULAR ALLOYS. Mixing in another metal like silbver makes the resulting alloy look paler ain color-but most times it is still yellow. So what metal is gold alloyed with to make it white? Also, what makes ‘red’ gold? I’ve heard it referred to as "rose’ gold as well. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-white-gold-made/407871/2 "2007-06-13T17:15:11Z")
_White gold contains a silvery metal_: “The highest quality white gold is usually at least 17 karat, and made up of gold and palladium, and sometimes even trace levels of platinum for weight and durability, although this often requires specialised goldsmiths.” _Red gold contains copper_: “Although the names are often used interchangeably, the difference between red, rose, and pink gold is the copper content: The higher the copper content, the stronger the red coloration. A common alloy for rose gold is three-quarters gold and one-quarter copper.” All from Wikipedia, but consistent with what I’ve seen from non-online sources. ---
**Author:** ![ArmenE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ArmenE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArmenE)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2007, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-white-gold-made/407871/3 "2007-06-13T17:17:57Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] I know that gold is often alloyed with other metals (to make the metal stronger), and in the USA, 18 karat (64% gold0, and 14 karat (685 GOLD) ARE POPULAR ALLOYS. Mixing in another metal like silbver makes the resulting alloy look paler ain color-but most times it is still yellow. So what metal is gold alloyed with to make it white? Also, what makes ‘red’ gold? I’ve heard it referred to as "rose’ gold as well. [/QUOTE] Both of these have their own wikipedia entries: [White Gold](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_gold) [Red/Rose Gold](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_gold) > [@](#): > > White gold is an alloy of gold and at least one white metal, such as silver or palladium. > [@](#): > > Rose gold is a gold and copper alloy widely used for specialized jewelry due to its reddish colour. It is also known as pink gold and red gold. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-white-gold-made/407871/4 "2007-06-14T00:24:17Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] I know that gold is often alloyed with other metals (to make the metal stronger), and in the USA, 18 karat (64% gold0, and 14 karat (685 GOLD) ARE POPULAR ALLOYS. [/QUOTE] 18K is _theoretically_, 75% gold(.750). 24 K is pure gold. Therefore, 14 K is _theoretically_ 58.5% gold(.585). ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-white-gold-made/407871/5 "2007-06-14T00:48:45Z")
My wedding ring is 18K white gold. It actually has a silver-like coating on it that has worn off exposing a slightly gold colour. The coating can be repaced but I like the pale gold look it has now. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-white-gold-made/407871/6 "2007-06-14T01:16:59Z")
[QUOTE=Nametag] _White gold contains a silvery metal_: “The highest quality white gold is usually at least 17 karat, and made up of gold and palladium, and sometimes even trace levels of platinum for weight and durability, although this often requires specialised goldsmiths.” [/quote] Interesting alloys. Platinum, of course, is not cheap, and neither is palladium. Of course, right now Pt is about twice the price of Au while Pd is about half the price of Au. Pd is still something like 20 times the price of Ag, so how much more is a ring alloyed with Pd compared with a ring alloyed with Ag? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-white-gold-made/407871/7 "2007-06-14T01:43:38Z")
[Here’s](http://www.gold.org/jewellery/technology/alloys/index.html) a much better site than Wikipedia for technical info about alloys of gold. It may, in fact, be too technical. But it’s probably more helpful. > [@asterion](#): > > Interesting alloys. Platinum, of course, is not cheap, and neither is palladium. Of course, right now Pt is about twice the price of Au while Pd is about half the price of Au. Pd is still something like 20 times the price of Ag, so how much more is a ring alloyed with Pd compared with a ring alloyed with Ag? . Probably not huge. The difference in the cost of the metal added, Pd vs Ag, is probably on the order of $10-30 US. So, since the final price of the ring at retail is a function more of markup and labor, rather than intrinsic cost, I doubt that it would be double or anything like that. But that’s just my somewhat informed opinion.