Palladium wedding rings?

[Dr. Lostreality]

we are looking at this website www.e-weddingbands.com for our wedding bands (the site was recommended by a friend). We decided on a style, but haven't decided on a metal yet.

We wanted Platinum, but that's a little out of our price range. They have a metal called palladium that looks more like platinum, but costs a lot less (and costs about $10 more per ring then white gold). Apparently this is the metal they mix with gold to make white gold?

So does anyone know anything about this stuff? Its it going to tarnish or bend easily or something? Here are some pictures and prices to compare:

Palladium, $242 per ring:
http://www.e-weddingbands.com/store/media/palladium-5-s.jpg

White gold, $233 per ring:
http://www.e-weddingbands.com/store/media/14KWG-CF-5mm-S.jpg

Platinum: $558 per ring:
http://www.e-weddingbands.com/store/media/PLCF5.jpg

[Sunny Sunshine]

Palladium is a soft silver-white metal that resembles platinum. It is the least dense and has the lowest melting point of the platinum group metals. It is soft and ductile when annealed and greatly increases its strength and hardness when it is cold-worked. Palladium dissolves slowly in sulfuric, nitric, and hydrochloric ****.[5] This metal also does not react with oxygen at normal temperatures (and thus does not tarnish in air). Palladium heated to 800°C will produce a layer of palladium(II) oxide (PdO). It lightly tarnishes in moist atmosphere containing sulfur.

The metal has the uncommon ability to absorb up to 900 times its own volume of hydrogen at room temperatures. It is thought that this possibly forms palladium hydride (PdH2) but it is not yet clear if this is a true chemical compound.[5]

When palladium has absorbed large amounts of hydrogen, it will expand slightly in size.[12]

Common oxidation states of palladium are 0,+1, +2 and +4. Although originally +3 was thought of as one of the fundamental oxidation states of palladium, there is no evidence for palladium occurring in the +3 oxidation state; this has been investigated via X-ray diffraction for a number of compounds, indicating a dimer of palladium(II) and palladium(IV) instead. Recently, compounds with an oxidation state of +6 were synthesised.

[Sunny Sunshine]

Jewelry

A Palladium plated belt buckle.Palladium itself has been used as a precious metal in jewelry since 1939, as an alternative to platinum or white gold. This is due to its naturally white properties, giving it no need for rhodium plating. It is slightly whiter, much lighter and about 12% harder than platinum. Similar to gold, palladium can be beaten into a thin leaf form as thin as 100 nm (1/250,000 in).[5] Like platinum, it will develop a hazy patina over time. Unlike platinum, however, palladium may discolor at high soldering temperatures, become brittle with repeated heating and cooling, and react with strong acids.[citation needed]

It can also be used as a substitute for nickel when making white gold. Palladium is one of the three most popular metals used to alloy with gold, making white gold.[15] (Nickel and silver can also be used.) Palladium-gold is a more expensive alloy than nickel-gold, but it's naturally hypoallergenic and holds its white color better.

When platinum was declared a strategic government resource during World War II, many jewelry bands were made out of palladium.[21] As recently as September 2001,[22] palladium was more expensive than platinum and rarely used in jewelry also due to the technical obstacle of casting. However the casting problem has been resolved, and its use in jewelry has increased because of a large spike in the price of platinum and a drop in the price of palladium.[23]

[Sunny Sunshine]

Prior to 2004, the principal use of palladium in jewelry was as an alloy in the manufacture of white gold jewelry, but, beginning early in 2004 when gold and platinum prices began to rise steeply, Chinese jewelers began fabricating significant volumes of palladium jewelry. Johnson Matthey estimated that in 2004, with the introduction of palladium jewelry in China, demand for palladium for jewelry fabrication was 920,000 ounces, or approximately 14% of the total palladium demand for 2004 - an increase of almost 700,000 ounces from the previous year. This growth continued during 2005, with estimated worldwide jewelry demand for palladium of about 1.4 million ounces, or almost 21% of net palladium supply, again with most of the demand centered in China. The popularity of Palladium jewelry is expected to grow in 2008 as the world's biggest producers embark on a joint marketing effort to promote Palladium jewelry worldwide [24]

[Sunny Sunshine]

That's all from Wiki...

[Sunny Sunshine]

I'd also be really careful about ordering them online. We bought in-store so if we had any problems, we could bring it straight there and not worry about it getting lost in the mail or anything.

My band is white gold with channel set diamonds:

http://zales.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pZALE1-2220031v300x300.jpg

Any Trav is thinking a Black Tungsten Carbide ring:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WqFlCIMAL._SL250_.jpg

The only negative with Tungsten/Titanium bands is that they aren't sizeable. So if he gains some weight, he'll need to get a new ring.

[Dr. Lostreality]

yeah we went to a bunch of jewelery stores, but we haven't found anything we liked as much, and the rings were much more expensive. like the cheapest white gold band we could find was $300, and this one is $70 less. The place has been vouched for by my friend...

[Wende]

um, oh my god. I hadn't even thought about rings. :lol:

what would I be doing without you ladies.

I like that black one. NOt that I wuld wear it, but for a guy.

[HoopsTer]

Ive read some good writeups in bridal magazines on palladium!

Have you thought about going to an antique shop or some of the online estate jewelry sites to look for wedding bands! You can get some great stuff for a lot less than new : )

Im a HUGE fan of the old stuff :)

[Sunny Sunshine]

yeah we went to a bunch of jewelery stores, but we haven't found anything we liked as much, and the rings were much more expensive. like the cheapest white gold band we could find was $300, and this one is $70 less. The place has been vouched for by my friend...

Awesome :) Always good to have refferals :)

[Wende]

Ive read some good writeups in bridal magazines on palladium!

Have you thought about going to an antique shop or some of the online estate jewelry sites to look for wedding bands! You can get some great stuff for a lot less than new : )

Im a HUGE fan of the old stuff :)

Thats what we are thinking. Seriously, retail is for suckers. Of course, we're all suckers but there are ways around it most of the time. It just takes a bit more effort. :heart:

[Karen]

Rel I would go for the white gold as it's a bit more brilliant than the palladium IMHO.

Sunny, I am getting the same wedding band! I just love that band.....JP got me white gold diamond hoop earrings for Christmas with the diamond channel in them. He said he picked them because they will match my wedding band :)

[reveur]

um, oh my god. I hadn't even thought about rings. :lol:

what would I be doing without you ladies.


no kidding, right? tiffany reminds me of why i'm marrying a former banquet manager. I'm so not a details person :lol:

(I got my clues by quizzing him while watching good eats. alton brown has a very distinctive ring)

[SpreadTheWordProductions.com]

nice me and my girl are looking at rings for our wedding in October. We have plenty of time but dont want to wait till last min for everything.

We are just looking for something simple at a cheap price. Now this Palladium is it a softer metal? I dont want to have a bunch of scratches after a while.

[Dr. Lostreality]

actually (according to what I've been reading) palladium is harder than both white gold and platinum, so it's much harder to scratch. It also does not get the yellow sheen that white gold gets after a while, and doesn't need to be re-plated like white gold usually needs to be.

The website I linked to earlier also has a deal for 10% off palladium rings until Jan 31st. We sent away for ring sizers (the website will send them to you for free), so we are going to order them once those come in the mail (since we have no idea what our ring sizes are).

[SpreadTheWordProductions.com]

nice thanks for the tip Ill bring that up to my girl. Thank god this is the easiest part of the wedding.

[Sunny Sunshine]

Not sure if you'd be interested in something that's not sizeable or not, but Titanium and Tungsten Carbide are both really decent priced and don't scratch. The only problem I have with them is they aren't sizeable and can't be cut off with a simple ring cutter. They need to be cut off with a laser if you break your hand or something and you'd need to get a whole new ring if you gain weight. But Travis loves them, so that's what he's getting :)

[TEO]

Many things of the wedding celebration are temporary, the ring in theory you will wear for the rest of your life, as such that is where I would not sacrifice.

[Dr. Lostreality]

Yeah, that's nice in theory, but we're pretty poor and I don't need some fancy platinum ring. Honestly, I would go with silver, but since we're wearing it forever and and all, we're going for the nicer/less tarnishy ring. :)

[Karen]

white gold needs to be replated eventually? :huh:

[Dr. Lostreality]

apparently the recently made white gold rings need to be replated eventually.

http://www.finishing.com/faqs/whitegold.html

[Wende]

Thats if you get plated gold. :)

They make solid white gold.

[Karen]

Hmmm. In a little confused. I'm going to ask the jeweler when we pick up our weddings rings. It's a little family owned place in IL so I think that increases our chances of a straight answer!

Thanks for the info ladies :)

[Wende]

Yea, let us know once you know. I have yet to even begin my search on rings.