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palladium
Could someone write me a few sentences about pros and cons of palladium, and
maybe do a little comparisson of palladium vs. most common jewellery metals (gold, silver, platinum)? I'm guessing Peter wouldn't have a problem writing one of his usual short (10-15 page) essays on the topic(s)...:-) All I know about palladium is that it has a history in jewellery (up to mid 20th century I think), that it's about half the price of gold (in terms of material), that it's quite mellable, quite hard (scratch resistant), that it doesen't tarnish, but also that it's (quote) "tricky to work with, especially when repair is needed". Thank you! Marijan |
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On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 09:54:58 -0800, in ¸õ "m4816k"
wrote: Could someone write me a few sentences about pros and cons of palladium, and maybe do a little comparisson of palladium vs. most common jewellery metals (gold, silver, platinum)? I'm guessing Peter wouldn't have a problem writing one of his usual short (10-15 page) essays on the topic(s)...:-) All I know about palladium is that it has a history in jewellery (up to mid 20th century I think), that it's about half the price of gold (in terms of material), that it's quite mellable, quite hard (scratch resistant), that it doesen't tarnish, but also that it's (quote) "tricky to work with, especially when repair is needed". Thank you! Marijan You called/ Palladium is not such a common metal for use in finished jewelry just by itself perhaps because it's not quite as good as platinum itself as a material, so people tend to use platinum, rather than palladium. But it does get used. One of the most common examples is that you can buy die struck settings (heads/ crowns, etc) made in palladium, as an alternative to white gold or to platinum. They offer greater durability than white gold, without the cost of platinum. As I'm sure you know, it's major use in jewelry is as an alloying metal to produce white gold alloys, rather than using it by itself, but it can be used just by itself. The differences, other than price, which is already a dramatic difference, are primarily in that palladium is much lighter than platinum, so it doesn't have the heft and feel of platinum, and as well, it does not offer the total freedom from oxidation during fabrication. While it does not tarnish in use, it does oxidize during soldering, and this must then be dealt with. It is not qutie as tough and strong as platinum either, so jewelry made from it won't last as well as platinum work, but it may well outperform nickle white golds in some ways. It's greater softness/malleability, as with platinum, will make stone setters happier to work with it than with nickel white golds From a practical standpoint, there are some problems working with palladium in that it's more like platinum than like gold in it's working properties, and not all jewelers will know how to handle it. In particular, gold solders, while they adhere to palladium (or platinum) do not form as good and strong a bond as they do to gold (or platinum), since the great difference in melting points prevents as much diffusion of the solder into the palladium as occurs with gold, and the ability of palladium to oxidize can also lead to joints that are not as strong as expected. One solution is to use platinum solders when joining palladium, as these bond well to it, but then one has to contend with the greater costs of such solders, and their melting points are above what can be used with gold, if one is combining metals. And because platinum solders are optimized for platinum, the color match to palladium may not be as good as hoped, though it's not that bad. In general, I consider palladium to be a bit more difficult to work with than platinum itself, and not qutie as satisfying a material. It's a bit harder to solder, and melting down scraps to make new ingots is trickier, given the oxidation problems wtih palladium. And it's not qutie as malleable, strong, or ductile as platinum. But if the economics of a piece make platinum itself impossible, then it's an option one can consider. And in some ways, it's easier to work with than some of the harder nickel white golds (which can be a royal pain in the backside sometimes), as well as not having potential problems with skin allergies to nickel. Hope that helps. Peter Rowe |
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