White gold: why it goes warm, and what rhodium actually is

On Anna’s own listings, 14kt solid yellow gold and 14kt solid white gold cost exactly the same. The Double thickness 14k Name Bracelet is £595 in either, across all 3 lengths, and the listing says why: the price is set by the weight of the gold. Same carat, same weight, same money. White gold is yellow gold.

Anna Lou has worked at a bench in London for 22 years, from a stall on Portobello Road to Liberty, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Harrods. She has re-finished a lot of white gold for people who decided theirs had gone wrong.

White gold is not actually white

Gold comes out of the ground yellow and stays yellow. To make it pale you alloy it with white metals, and what comes back is not white. It is a warm grey, somewhere between steel and old pewter, not the silvery colour people picture when they order white gold.

So almost every white gold piece sold anywhere is finished with a thin plate of rhodium. Rhodium belongs to the platinum family, it is very hard, very bright, and it goes on in a layer so thin it is measured in microns. When you look at a white gold ring, you are looking at the rhodium.

Professional Jeweller ran a feature on palladium on 21 June 2013, reported by Kathryn Bishop, quoting John Ball of Brown and Newirth: palladium had become a popular alternative to white gold "owing to its colour and fact it does not require rhodium plating". That piece is 13 years old, it describes a market rather than what anybody buys now, and Anna does not sell palladium. The useful part is what it takes for granted: white gold needs a coating and palladium does not.

Where the plating wears through

Rhodium does not fade, it wears off wherever something rubs it: on a ring, the underside of the band against the next finger, and the back of the shank against a desk or a steering wheel. So a ring goes warm along the bottom and stays bright across the top, and the warm part shows the moment it turns.

A pendant or a pair of studs is different: nothing rubs them. A white gold pendant can look new after 10 years while a ring bought the same week has already been back to a bench. That is friction, not quality.

A polish takes metal away

Polishing is not cleaning. It cuts a fine layer off the surface to level the scratches, so every polish leaves the piece slightly thinner. Do it often enough across a lifetime and a crisp engraving goes soft, and so, eventually, can a hallmark. A careful bench polishes as little as it can get away with.

On a plated piece there is no margin. Polish gold vermeil or gold plating and you take the gold off, not the scratch. That is the real difference between plated and solid, and it only shows years later: solid gold can be worked on again and again, a plated piece cannot. Sterling silver sits in between: already a white metal, needing no coating, and the dark film it grows is tarnish rather than damage, so it comes off.

The piece this started with is the Double thickness 14k Name Bracelet, £595 in 14kt solid yellow gold or 14kt solid white gold, in 5.5in, 6.5in or 7.5in. It takes 1 name or word, up to 5 letters at that price, and anything longer is quoted on the weight of the gold. The double thickness is the point: there is metal in it to work with, so a bench can polish it in 30 years for somebody who never met Anna.

She notices which pieces come back. Almost never the ones that were looked after. The ones that were never taken off.

If solid gold is not where you are, the Elegant Gold Double Disc Necklace is £95 in sterling silver, £140 in gold vermeil, and the same 10mm disc is £320 in 14kt solid white gold or yellow gold, so you can compare the plated and the solid version of the same design. The Personalised Vertical Bar Necklace is £145 flat in sterling silver, gold vermeil or rose gold vermeil, taking up to 4 names, in 14in to 22in. A plain chain is the cheapest way to learn how you wear a metal: the Belcher Chain is £45 in any of its 3 finishes and 5 lengths. More sit in Chain Necklaces, and the pieces people buy meaning to keep are in 30th Birthday Gifts.

White gold that has gone warm is a question for Second Life, the remodelling and heirloom service. Send a photograph and Anna will tell you what the piece needs. Her own list of small changes reads: a resize, a new clasp, a different chain length, a clean and a polish. Plating is not on that list, so ask about it when you send the photograph. The estimate is free and there is no obligation. Gold you will never wear again can go the other way, through recycling your old jewellery.

The second life is the real one. Anna Lou x.

Everything is made by hand in the London workshop. A photograph of what you already own will get you an answer: start here, or on WhatsApp.

Questions people ask

Why has my white gold ring gone yellow underneath?

The rhodium plating has worn through where the band rubs, and the colour showing is the actual colour of the white gold alloy under it. It is not a fault and it does not mean the ring is fake. Re-plating is a routine bench job rather than a repair, and it is worth asking about at the same time as a clean and a polish.

Is white gold worth more than yellow gold?

No. The carat tells you how much gold is in the alloy, so 14kt white and 14kt yellow hold the same weight of gold and are priced the same. On the Double thickness 14k Name Bracelet both are £595. What differs is upkeep: the yellow needs none, and the white will want its plating refreshed every few years if it is worn on a hand.

Can a gold vermeil piece be polished or re-plated?

Polishing removes plating, so a vermeil piece should be cleaned gently and not buffed. Re-plating is possible on some pieces and not on others, and it depends on what is underneath and how the piece is built, so it needs looking at rather than guessing. If the piece is a ring and sizing is part of the question, measure with the ring size guide.