Today we are going to talk about how long does gold plated last and the typical questions that come to your mind. So let’s get into it.
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How Long Does Gold Plated Last?
When maintained with proper care, gold plating can last for 3 to 5 years.
It depended on a couple of factors. Few factors are in your control and few are not.
The first one is the quality of the plating on the jewelry. it should be vacuum goldplated so the plating will last longer than the normal goldplated jewelry has in gold plated with vacuum technology.
Secondly how often do you wear your jewelry to use underwater? Jewelry should be water resistant so you can take a few showers anywhere. But if you take off your gold-plated jewelry before a shower of course it’s going to last you for a longer period of time.
The third thing is if the jewelry contains nickel and you have sensitive skin especially in the air when you wear jewelry that is not nickel-free and contains nickel then your air becomes moist so they become moist continuously. The moisture is in touch with the jewelry so of course it turns black quickly.
The fourth thing that you will be surprised to know is the PH level of your skin. everybody has a little bit of acidity in the skin as well. so if the PH level of your skin is higher than usual the jewelry color changes quickly as well because the acid in your skin affects the jewelry you will see especially in the ring they are fine on the top but on the bottom maybe they sometimes change color because it’s more in like touch with the skin with the bottom side.
The factors that are in your control -:
Don’t wear the same jewelry day and night.
Difference between gold flash & gold plating?
There is a difference between gold plating and flash plating and that’s mainly the thickness so both platings can be done at the same plating company but the thickness all depends on how long it’s been left in the tank.
There’s obviously a more scientific measurement that goes into a plating process but we just want you guys to know that when we say flash plating it basically means that there is enough gold to just cover the item and give it a uniform color and gold flash is usually on costume jewelry where the base metal is like nickel boss or bonds and it’s sometimes used on still metals such as electronic parts where there isn’t a requirement for wear protection.
so given jewelry flash plating isn’t the way to go it’s not durable or long-lasting, especially for hard-wearing jewelry such as rings and bracelets.
Gold plating however provides better protection for jewelry.
Demand for gold plating has increased over the last 15 years as pure gold prices increased.
What’s the micron?
A micron is 0.001 of a millimeter. It is hard to visualize don’t visualize it. if you have jewelry that is at least one micron thicker then I would say that’s good quality gold plating just as a comparison flash plating is less than one micron so you can see the difference there. So when someone says that the piece of jewelry is three microns thick what they’re saying is the gold is three microns thick on the surface of the metal.
How many microns should you choose when plating your jewelry?
For every type of jewelry, there is a recommended micron thickness which is 1-2 microns for earrings 2 to 5 microns for rings, and 2.5-5 microns for everything else such as bracelets necklaces, and bangles. –
Ultimately the thicker you go in microns the more expensive it’s going to be.
How do I take care of plated jewelry?
If you’re going to do something that requires the use of your hands you want to make sure that you take off any wings or bracelets that have gold plating.
Take them off when you are cooking or you cleaning, because cleaning products have chemicals that can affect the durability of gold plating.
The same goes with if you’re having a shower or a bath or you are going swimming make sure that you take it off.
Use jewelry soft cloth as well they’re not very expensive you can get them online site.
Make sure that you store your jewelry away properly.
How much does plating cost?
It depends on various factors one is how many microns you go for so the more microns that you have on the piece you can expect the price to go up it also depends on the size of the jewelry as well.
So if it’s a big item there is a lot more surface area so a lot more gold plating to cover the gold plating also depends on the market price of the gold as well so if the price of gold is expensive you may expect the wall plating to be a little bit more.
Gold plating can be applied quite easily on sterling silver. But with other metals such as copper, it needs to have some additional steps where you need to have the copper plated in either nickel or palladium before it can take to go plating.
So obviously those extra steps will affect the price.
What other color plating is available?
We’ve been talking a lot about gold because most of the consumers do a lot of yellow gold plating but there is rose plating which is also popular and also white rhodium and black rhodium plating.
White rhodium plating achieves more of that white gold effect and it’s also sometimes used as an anti-tarnish.
With black rhodium it’s an awesome color it looks a little bit more masculine. It’s not as popular but I think it’s really cool.
