Friday, October 23, 2009

ng what sort of gold is avai



ng what sort of gold is available and the sort of gold jewellery is important. Your budget will be the first factor followed by what sort of jewellery does your father like? Also what size, especially with rings and bracelets, is important.

14K gold contains 14 parts gold and 10 parts of one or more additional metals, making it 58.3% gold.

12K gold contains 12 parts gold and 12 parts of one or more additional metals, making it 50 percent gold.

10K gold contains 10 parts gold and 14 parts of one or more additional metals, making it 41.7 percent gold. 10K gold is the minimum karat that can be called "gold" in the United States.

Where additional metals are used this is usually nickel, copper, zinc and sometimes silver or palladium. It is important to know this as some people seem to develop allergies to 'gold jewellery'. It is not the gold to which they have the allergy but one of the metals to which it is alloyed. usually nickel.

The advantage therefore of using 24Karat gold in your jewellery is that one does not develop allergies to it.

The disadvantage of course is that gold is a soft metal and wears away easily. Hence the addition of harder metals to give it some durability as well as the obvious cost savings.

So you have to weight up the pros and cons when it comes to what karat jewellery do you want. If you have no allergies to other metals then lesser karat will suffice, will give you a longer lasting jewellery piece and of course be a lot cheaper as well.

In this case probably 18 karat would be ideal. 14 and the lower Karats do not have much gold at all and their resale value is correspondingly less.


Whatever you buy it is wise to look at the quality of gold of the jewellery and what type of gemstones are used.

18 karat gold is most likely to be the best. 22 and 24 karat gold tends to be too soft for jewellery, especially for a man, and 18 or 14 karat is better for jewellery worn a lot. 10 and 9 karat jewellery is mostly other metal and gold plated is going to wear off after a while so really should be avoided.

It is worth while browsing the various jewelers and looking to select something your father would really appreciate. Ensure that the specifications of the piece are clearly show. The karat of the gold, type of gold, yellow, white etc. Also if there is a gemstone in the piece, check the setting. Is it a good fit? Is the stone lose in the setting?

If there is a gemstone, what sort of stone is it? Diamond? Emerald? Ruby? What are the quality and characteristics of the stone. Do

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