Types of Gold
Yellow Gold
With its warm hue, yellow gold is the most common precious metal. It is commonly composed with small amounts of copper, alloy, and silver, making this metal resilient, while maintaining its timeless shine.
White Gold
White gold has a silver appearance and is composed of gold, nickel, zinc, and alloy. It is also commonly plated with rhodium to add to its shine and hardness.
Rose Gold
Rose gold is composed of gold, copper, alloy and silver, giving it a unique pink-ish hue — like a rose. The copper is what gives it its distinct pink coloring. It’s strong enough for daily wear, and has been used in creating jewelry for centuries.
Alternative Metals
Tungsten Carbide
Tungsten Carbide has a metallic, silvery tone. Tungsten is a very hard and it’s 4x harder than titanium and 2x harder than steel. Despite its hardness, tungsten can shatter with pressure or upon impact in some situations. This is because of how it is produced. Tungsten and carbide are ground to a powder, bound together using nickel, and compressed into a solid state, making it porous, brittle, and susceptible to shattering.
Titanium
Titanium has superior structural integrity and is 3x stronger than steel. Titanium is very light weight (1/3 as much as gold). Although a very hard and durable metal, titanium can still be scratched by abrasive materials like rocks or hardened steel tools.
Titanium also plays a role in gems. Traces of titanium dioxide impurities cause the asterism phenomenon in Star Sapphires and Rubies. Blue sapphires can get their blue color from traces of titanium as well.
Stainless Steel
Stainless steel is a metal composed of iron alloy and a minimum of 10.5% of chromium. The chromium makes the metal resistant to staining, corroding, and oxidation. Stainless steel comes in many grades that determine the application of the metal. This is a relatively hard, durable, and affordable metal, which typically comes in light gray.