Gold is a natural element with chemical properties that distinguish it from other metals and materials.
which make it an ideal material for creating jewelry
The main feature of gold is that it does not oxidize. Gold is a material that remains shiny and beautiful over the years, so even when jewelry made of pure gold is found at archaeological sites, it sparkles and is as beautiful as new.
Another key feature is that gold is a material with high tensile strength in nature, making it easy to process, mold, and create delicate handmade jewelry from.
Why is the world's gold jewelry not made of pure gold?
Pure gold is too soft a material for making jewelry, it will warp and wear out quickly and therefore over time.
History realized that it was better to create a new alloy, and add additional materials to pure gold, This is how you reduce the price and strengthen the metal to make it suitable for creating and wearing jewelry. For more information on this topic, you can read here
Gold is a very precious material with high value, so legally, every piece of jewelry must be marked with the percentage of pure gold it contains. These markings are called karats.
Jewelry Markings - Karats
The markings on the jewelry are the proportion of pure gold in the alloy and are very familiar to all of us as 14 karat and 18 karat.
The higher the karat number, the more pure gold it contains, and therefore the more expensive, valuable and warmer the hue, the more shimmering the sparkle.
Pure gold is marked as 24 karat - 99.9999% pure gold in an alloy
18 karat gold essentially represents the percentage of pure gold: 18 parts of 24 - in percentage terms 75% gold
pure In alloy and other materials
14 karat gold essentially represents the percentage of pure gold: 14 parts of 24 - in percentages 58.5% pure gold in the alloy and the rest other materials
The additional materials that are added to the alloy are metals such as silver, copper, nickel, and palladium.
So there you have it, now you know more about gold and its properties :) Which gold do you like best? Let us know in the comments.
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