What is an alloy in jewelry?

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What does alloy mean in jewelry? 

An alloy refers to any metal that is not in its purest form. The silver and gold you find in your bracelets, earrings, necklaces, or other jewelry is alloyed with a base metal to enhance their physical properties. And thanks to this combination of metals, designs with more original and unique shapes can be created.

The purpose of the alloy is to contribute to and improve the general properties of the precious metal, as it is too malleable (soft) in its purest state to create hard and durable jewelry pieces. Imagine gold and silver as the two most commonly used metals for jewelry. It would be very difficult to produce high-purity pieces without adding another metal.

How to recognize real gold?

From this model, we can find different carats for gold.

Gold has different qualities or purities. 10k, 14k, 18k, and 24k gold. 10-karat gold is alloyed with 14 parts of other metals, 18-karat gold is alloyed with 6 parts of other metals, and 24-karat gold is the purest gold, as it is not alloyed with any other metal.

18 karat gold contains 75 percent gold.

14 karat gold is combined with other elements that make it stronger

At Koompliments, all gold-plated jewelry pieces are coated with 14k, 18k, and 24k gold. Gold-plated jewelry is a piece of jewelry that is usually made from a more affordable material, such as steel, stainless steel, or copper, and then refined with a thin layer of real gold.

 

Popular jewelry alloys 

Alloys are metals with which you can create high-quality jewelry that would otherwise be unthinkable. By alloying or adding a base metal, it is possible to increase the variety of metals used in jewelry.

The color, durability, and beauty of the metal varied depending on the alloy it contains.

For this reason, the piece of jewelry may lose its shine and tarnish over the years. This is because both silver and copper react with our skin, the air, and other elements around us. As with gold, this does not happen in a short time and it is also easy to fix.

Silver alloy

Without copper, which is used as a base metal, we could not obtain sterling silver, for example. Alloys with silver usually contain copper. The most popular ones consist of silver and copper with a typical thousandth fineness of 825, 925 (sterling), or even 935 parts by mass of silver per thousand. This means that when we say 925 silver, we mean that the piece of jewelry is made up of 92.5% silver and the rest from other metals. In other words, for every 1,000 parts, 925 is pure silver.

Stainless Steel

Stainless steel is also made from alloys and is the best non-precious metal for corrosion resistance.

Stainless steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. By definition, it contains at least 10.5% chromium. Some types of stainless steel also contain other alloying elements to improve physical properties.

We have a large selection of Stainless Steel Jewelry, discover them!

 

What is the right alloy for rings? 

Although sterling silver remains highly valued despite its alloying with other metals, stainless steel is the more durable of the two, as evidenced by the fact that stainless steel has a variety of strong and industrial applications that sterling silver does not have.

 

Which alloy is suitable for earrings? 

Since a few years, titanium has been increasingly used in fine jewelry, a metal that has so many unique properties.

Titan is a lightweight metal with excellent resistance, three times more than steel, but it is much lighter. It is silvery white when pure. Another interesting feature is that it does not cause irritations, allergies, or skin discolorations: If you suffer from irritations while wearing jewelry, titanium may be the right solution. It is no coincidence that it is also well-suited for piercings. Titanium is used in jewelry because it does not break or bend (unless it is very thin). Another positive aspect: it does not spoil with seawater or chlorine from the pool.

Many of our earrings made in Greece have a small rod that crosses the ear's ovulum. This rod is made of titanium, which is why you see it in a darker color than the rest of the earring.

 

Discover the best metal for silver plating: Zamak Jewelry. Super suitable for more robust and massive jewelry pieces. Like our jewelry collections made in Spain.

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