Let’s speak through K gold today.
What is karat gold:
K is the abbreviation of Karat, the unit of gold purity, which in simple terms means is the gold content.
The international standard will be divided into 24 equal parts of gold purity, each part is about 4.166666%, with K to indicate.
K gold is actually a precious metal containing different portions of gold, such as 18K gold, which contains a gold content of 75% of gold.
K gold is available in several types:
24K Gold
Theoretically, 24K gold refers to the gold content of 1000 grams pure gold.
But in reality there is almost no such gold content. Internationally, the gold content of 999‰ or more gold, labeled as 24K gold.
Due to the early 24K name being too deeply rooted, today many consumers in the purchase of jewelry will still want to foot gold called 24K gold, or generally known as pure gold.
18K Gold
18K gold is 75% gold, with the remaining 25% silver, zinc, nickel, palladium, copper or other metals.
It has a strong hardness while maintaining gold luster, making it the dominant choice for inlay jewelry today.
14K Gold
With a gold content of 58.5%, 14K gold is just as suitable for gemstone settings as 18K gold.
It is less prone to rust and corrosion, maintains its luster well, and is cheaper than 18K, so it is very popular.
9K Gold
The gold content of 9K gold is 37.5%. 9K gold is hard, flexible and not easy to deform and wear.
The price will be much cheaper than 18K gold, and some light luxury jewelry brands like to use it.
The general style is small, cute, and simple, and is inlaid with some small gemstone particles, under the premise of ensuring the beauty of the style, the price is also relatively cheaper than 18K.
K gold color:
In addition to 24K gold and 22K gold yellow, other gold content of K gold due to market demand, can be appropriately adjusted to contain other metal types.
Make it present a colorful and fashionable colors, such as white gold, rose gold, bright yellow gold color, green, purple and so on.
Which is more popular among consumers are mainly the following 3 colors:
Bright yellow gold color ware
In addition to gold, K gold contains copper, zinc, platinum, nickel, silver, palladium and other metals, resulting in the bright gold color of the metal.
Despite its traditional gold color, it is more brilliant and dazzling. Under the premise of guaranteeing gold content, each factory has its own proportion formula for K gold.
The proportion of copper, zinc and other metal elements can be adjusted to obtain darker or lighter yellow K gold.
This is the reason why the color of finished K-gold products from different vendors in the market varies, which is a normal phenomenon.
White Gold
Bright white gold with a strong metallic luster is a slightly greenish-yellowish white color due to the presence of silver, nickel, zinc and other metals.
In order to match with many gemstones and to satisfy the demand of consumers who like bright white color.
The factory will electroplate a layer of precious metal rhodium (rhodium is much more expensive than gold) on its surface, making its color white and durable.
Rose gold color
Rose gold-colored K-gold, due to the presence of platinum, nickel, silver, palladium and other metals, presents a warm, reddish metallic color.
It is very fashionable and has become very popular among consumers in recent years.
Why 18K gold is the international mainstream:
When it comes to the choice of jewelry material, 18K gold is undoubtedly the mainstream of today’s international jewelry market. So why is 18K gold so popular?
High durability
Although solid gold has a long history as jewelry, its high ductility makes it very soft.
If you use solid gold to make a more three-dimensional or thin shape, the slightest mistake will deform or even cause the gemstone to fall off.
Repairing and restoring it will be costly and time-consuming, but may even be impossible.
Compared to solid gold, 18K gold is hard enough to resist deformation and breakage.
This means it can be used to create more complex and difficult designs.
Additionally, it can ensure that the jewelry has a better luster, that the shape won’t easily deform, and that invalid gemstones won’t fall out.
Even if there are scratches on the 18K gold or it loses its luster because it has been worn for a long time. With a bit of polishing or plating, it can be restored to its original state.
More fashionable
18K gold is available in a wide range of colors and is suitable for a variety of textures and colors of gemstones.
Some of the most common colors of 18K gold are 18K white gold, 18K yellow gold, and 18K rose gold.
Designers can create more diversified and exquisite styles to meet consumers’ pursuit of fashion and personality.
For example, the mainstream gold used in diamond rings are very much in favor of using 18K white gold.
Don’t take them as K gold:
Many consumers in the purchase of jewelry, often see the business logo of 14K gold-plated, silver-plated 18K gold, 18K gold-encased words, but in the end, what is it?
Gold plating
The process of gold plating uses electroplating, chemical plating, and other methods to coat a layer of gold onto the base metal.
Can make the metal body of the surface color change, present a more beautiful appearance effect.
Gold-plated jewelry on the market, ranging from a few dollars to dozens of dollars, strictly speaking, these can only be called jewelry.
Because most of them do not contain gold or the gold content is very low, not up to the precious metal standard of jewelry. Even after a dozen days of wearing, some of the gold plating layer will lose its color.
For example, We often see 22K gold-plated goods, 18K gold-plated goods, and 14K gold-plated goods, their bodies may be silver, copper, titanium steel and other metals. When you buy, you must pay attention, not as K gold to buy.
Gold-plated
Gold-plated, literally, is easily understood as a thick layer of gold wrapped around the outside of the jewelry.
However, most jewelry on the market is made of relatively cheap alloys such as aluminum, copper and zinc. Then on the surface of a thin layer of K gold plating, selling a higher price than gold-plated jewelry.
The state has been providing standard processes for precious metals in order to avoid businessmen drilling loopholes.
Requirements “outside the gold cladding, the layer of gold content should not be less than 375 ‰”; at the same time require “gold cladding thickness of not less than 0.5μm”.
The amount of gold used, but also more than 1/20 of the overall material. If too thin, or packaged gold content is too low, it cannot be called packaged gold.
When you buy the so-called gold-plated jewelry, you should look carefully at the mark on it, which can reach the standard of gold-plated jewelry may be engraved with I
In the case of “GF” characters, such as “1/10.14K. GF,” the amount of gold is the equivalent of 1/10 of the entire package of jewelry，package 14K gold.
K gold should be how to maintain?
1, Each piece of K gold jewelry will be placed independently in a different jewelry box or drawer, to avoid scratching.
2, K gold jewelry is highly ductile, so don’t pull necklaces, bracelets or other ornaments that can be easily deformed.
3, In doing housework, you should first remove K gold jewelry, because detergent and other liquids will make K gold jewelry color become dull.
4, generally dress before wearing K gold jewelry, because perfume, hair spray and other chemicals will cause damage to K gold jewelry.
5, Do not wear K gold jewelry while swimming. In addition to being easy to lose, salt water and chlorine water will also damage K gold jewelry.
6, Regular cleaning of K gold jewelry. K gold jewelry is immersed in warm soapy water, gently wipe off the grease with a soft brush, and then rinse with water, dry with a hair dryer.
