Gold plating, gold filled, K gold, pure gold, what is the difference?

by mittag jewelry

In the previous article "How to choose jewelry materials correctly is the key". We introduced you to the basic knowledge of materials that consumers need to know when buying jewelry. But in addition to gold, silver, copper accessories, there are also Gold Plated, Gold Filled, and Gold Rolled on the market. Are they considered gold? Does it bother you too? Now let us explain the differences between them.

Gold plated or gold color plated! Polluting the environment and not durable are disadvantages

Before starting to introduce gold plating, we think it is necessary to mention the facts of electroplating that consumers should know before buying jewelry, and then consider whether to buy:
"When you buy, make sure that the plating is real gold or just gold color."
"No matter what kind of plating is used, the result of color fading cannot be prevented"
"Whether it is accessory electroplating or jewelry electroplating, it pollutes the environment in the same way"
"After electroplating, it is impossible for you to know what metal is hidden inside and whether it is harmful to the body and the environment"

Gold plating is electroplating. A thin layer of gold, rose gold or silver color is plated on metal or alloy jewelry, and then the whole product becomes more attractive. However, due to the thin gold plating layer, it is easy to fade after use or scrub, and the inner metal will be exposed. So the electroplating jewelry cannot be wiped, and should avoid wearing the same jewelry for a long time, because the long-term wear will inevitably cause corrosion and expose the bottom layer; and of course, you can't wear it for a bath, and you can't wear it washing hands. The most important thing is that it is impossible to repair and maintain it, because the plating layer is likely to disappear after repair, and the substrate will be exposed and need to be re-plated. The cheap electroplating contains nickel, because nickel plating can make the surface of the jewelry smooth and bright, but nickel is harmful to the human body and the environment (nickel plating of jewelry is prohibited in Europe and the United States), and the electroplating process requires the use of cyanide. Cyanide-containing substances such as potassium cyanide are highly toxic, and can be fatal in small amounts. Therefore, if you can choose, it is recommended to choose jewelry without electroplating, because they have no toxic cyanide electroplating process, there is no nickel on the surface that is harmful to the environment and human body, and there is no substrate that is easy to cause allergies, everything is WYSIWYG, isn’t it much simpler? In addition, the electroplating layer is actually easy to disappear. Generally speaking, the electroplating layer will disappear and fade in about 2-3 months, and what you can do is just to buy new ones. In comparison, the C/P value is much lower than sterling silver and K gold jewelry, because sterling silver and K gold jewelry can be worn for a lifetime or even sold back to jewelry shops.

Gold filled is like a Popiah, and the disadvantage is dull

Then there is gold rolled, also known as gold filled. If you have eaten Popiahs, you can imagine that the Popiahs wrapped outside are precious metals. Although, like gold plating, the inner layer is made of other metals, it uses high temperature and high pressure to forge precious metals onto other metals. The surface hardness is strong and thick, and the bonding force is also strong. The gold-filled surface has a layer of precious metal, which is no different in appearance from precious metal jewelry. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stipulates that the precious metal of gold-filled products must be at least equal to 5% (1/20) of the total weight of the product, so usually 1/20 14K GF will be printed on 14K gold-filled products. Seeing the mark of "1/10 10K GF", it means that the jewelry is made by rolling "1/10 10K gold of the total weight of the product" onto the metal surface. To put it simply, the biggest difference between gold-filled and gold plating is that the thickness of the surface gold is different and it is not easy to peel off. The thickness of gold-filled gold is about 100 times that of gold-plated, but whether it is gold-plated or gold-filled, it can only be regarded as a "layer" of gold wrapped on the outside of other metals, so the gold content is far less than that of K gold.

However, gold-filled jewelry still has its disadvantages that make it unpopular to consumers, that is, such high-temperature and high-pressure gold-filled technology can only be used on plate and columnar materials, so you can easily tell from the appearance whether an accessory is really made of gold-filled process. At present, the commonly seen gold-filled process uses the plate to make the plate feel three-dimensional by stamping, but if you look carefully, the thickness of such an accessory is uniform (you can imagine that the thickness of a car shell is uniform by stamping plate objects), so there will be restrictions on the design of accessories, and it looks dull. Therefore, most of this method uses gold-filled wire to make plain chains or plain rings, which is suitable for mass production by machines.

Comparison of different accessory materials

Smart shopping to save money, cheap is not really cheap

Now let me ask you, if you see "14K alloy" written on the material, is it K gold? The devil is in the details, the answer is cruel, it's not 14K gold! ! ! It is electroplated with 14K gold on the outside of the alloy (even you have to further doubt whether the gold-plated layer is real gold or imitation gold color). If you bought it because you misunderstood that it was 14K gold and it was very cheap, then you would be as mad as I was. Many years ago, before I entered the jewelry industry, I bought a 14K alloy bracelet on the Internet. I loved it very much and wore it everyday. Then one day it suddenly had a different metallic luster. I wiped it with a polish cloth, and then the discolored area became bigger and bigger. I nervously took it to a jewelry shop and found out that it was copper that had been electroplated with K gold color. I was soooo sad.

Here I would like to share with you more, mittag jewelry has always insisted on using the most labor-intensive and time-consuming way to polish products by hand, instead of using electroplating technology to avoid harm to the human body and the environment. On the other hand, we also hope to provide products that from the inside to outside all made of a consistent beautiful metal, so that everyone can wear it every day, 24 hours a day, and for a lifetime without fear of fading or allergies. The more you wear it, the more beautiful and brighter it is. A good piece of jewelry can accompany us for a long time. "Know more, choose well, buy less, make it last", the infallible shopping idea, sincerely invite you to join us.

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