Gold is a popular and one of the most valuable metals. There is no other better metal than gold for making jewelry and gold is the all time favorite setting for gemstones. It is loved by all be it the jewelry artisan or the consumer.

Qualities of gold

    Gold is malleable and ductile. A single ounce of gold can be made into a thin wire of five miles long or can be spread into a thin sheet to cover 100 sq. ft area. It is a shiny metal which cannot be oxidized. It is available in all places on earth but its separation process is intricate and expensive. About 3 tons of gold is required to extract one ounce of pure gold.

Purities of Gold

    The term 24 karat is used to express the purity of gold. 24 karat gold contains only gold and is very soft. To make it usable and hard other metals are mixed with it. The term karat tells us the proportion of gold. The higher the karat, the higher will be the quantity of gold in any jewelry.

Determination of quality of gold

     Any jewelry is inscribed with its karat quality. To determine whether the jewelry is genuinely made of gold, the US registered trade mark of the Company can be located on the jewelry. If it is not there, then you can opt for another piece. Quality of Jewelry whether hollow or solid, is always ascertained by karat mark.

Gold Plating

     Any jewelry can be coated with gold by adopting various methods like electrolysis. However, the life of gold plating depends on the maintenance of the piece and the thickness of plating. The more the usage, the less will be life of plating.

Gold Overlay

     Jewelry made of other metals can be mechanically bonded to gold usually 10 karat gold. This is known as gold overlay.

Gold flashing

     Sometimes, a piece of jewelry may contain extremely thin coating of gold. This is expressed as Gold washed or gold flashed jewelry which will wear away quickly. Vermeil, a special type, consists of sterling silver that is coated with gold.