What do Gold purity ratings mean?

When you hear the words 18 carat or 14 carat or even 10 carat do you really know what this means? Do you know what the purity rating of a piece of jewelry actually signifies? Let me briefly walk you through the different gold standards and ratings, this will most certainly assist you with making an informed decision when purchasing men’s gold bracelets.

The first rating that needs to be clarified if that of pure gold:
The purest of all the gold ratings is 24 carat gold, due to the fact that it is really soft and malleable these properties makes it pretty unusable when it comes to making jewelry. A process called alloying is used to make the pure 24K gold into a more robust and wearable material. Alloying is a process whereby different metals are mixed with pure gold, the metals used to form the base of this alloy can be anything from silver to copper sometimes even zinc is used. There is the functional aspect of making pure gold into a useful jewelry material but a close eye always needs to be kept on striking the perfect equilibrium between functional practicality and the desirability of having a valuable metal. This is the reason there are certain gold standards that have become almost benchmarks in the jewelry making fraternity, they are categorized into three main elements:

18 Carat gold is the finest of the three grades, it is typically made up of 75% gold and 25% alloy. It is most certainly the softest of the three but is also the most expensive due to the high gold content. It is however not too soft that is cannot be worked into a fine designer gold bracelet. Care must be taken with your 18K gold bracelet as it will wear out sooner than the other grades, but it does make for a very fine and tasteful purchase.

The second grade that gold jewelry is classified into is 14 carat. This level carries a gold content of just over 58% and an alloy rating of 42%%. There is the obvious advantage of having a more durable piece of jewelry in the higher alloy content without having to sacrifice the rich yellow glow of gold.

10 carat gold if by virtue the most durable and strongest of the three gold’s, this is also where the gold content is less than 50% compared to the alloy content. This deduces the fact that this grading will have less of the desirable yellow gold glow, it surprisingly will also be the first to tarnish. This gold is a good choice when it comes to gifts such as centenary rings or even gold class bracelets.