What is Palladium?
July 1, 2014 / Jewellery Buying Guide, Learn About Metals
Palladium is the lesser known of the precious metals yet it has been used in jewellery since the 1930s. Palladium belongs to the same family as Platinum, which also includes, Iridium, Ruthenium and Azmium. Like Platinum, Palladium is strong and durable, but has low density so weighs considerably less than Platinum. Palladium also shares the same beautiful white colour as platinum, so there is no need to plate your metal to achieve that beautiful colour. Palladium is also the choice of alloy for White Gold metal. How expensive is Palladium?
Like all metal, the price of Palladium fluctuates. But generally speaking, Palladium is a more affordable option to Platinum and can be less expensive than a high carat gold, such as 18ct.
Is Palladium suitable for sensitive skin?
Palladium, being a pure, non-reactive metal, is a great choice for those with sensitive skin.
What are the other benefits of palladium?
Apart from being affordable and durable, Palladium does not tarnish and is fairly straightforward to look after. Even though you will not need to have your pieces recoated to achieve the beautiful white colour, it is always a good idea to take your Palladium jewellery to your jeweler annually. Your jeweller can remove any unwanted scratches and marks and check any stones to make sure they are nice and secure.
What sort of jewellery is palladium suitable for?
Palladium is a great choice for all types of jewellery, whether it is your wedding rings, earrings, pendants or a bracelet. Like Gold, Palladium is ductile, so can be worked into interesting forms.
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Hi. Can you palladium plate an old white gold wedding ring? If so, roughly how much will it cost?
Hi Sharon,
We prefer to rhodium plate white gold rather than palladium plate. Palladium is not as hard or as white as rhodium so the result tends to be more grey and wears off faster. All white gold rings made by Larsen Jewellery come with a lifetime of free annual rhodium plating.
Hi do you work with white gold alloyed with palladium rather than nickel/silver? Appears to have much better shiny colour without need for rhodium plating…
Hi Raphael, thanks for your comment! We always use white gold that has a high palladium content, it’s a much better colour and also more durable. Although it doesn’t have the yellowish tone of nickel white gold, palladium white gold still isn’t perfectly white so we do recommend rhodium plating the finished piece. Rhodium plating is always optional, just let us know if you would like your jewellery not to be rhodium plated and we will happily leave it in its natural colour.