Rhodium is a rare, naturally occurring member of the platinum group of metals. It’s extremely hard. It’s silvery in color and highly reflective. It’s protects against corrosion and doesn’t react with most chemicals making rhodium especially good for plating jewelry!
Jewelry plating is essentially covering one metal surface with a very thin layer of another. In this process, the item to be plated is dipped in a liquid solution containing the plating metal. When an electric current is added to the mix, the tiny suspended particles of plating metal bond to the surface of the immersed piece of jewelry. Rhodium is often used to plate white gold jewelry. Because of the very bright and shiny nature of rhodium, it gives white gold a nice “pop.”
Rhodium plated rings look whiter and brighter. More often than not, white gold pieces of jewelry you see in jewelry stores have been rhodium plated. It’s the final step in lots of white gold jewelry. Silver jewelry is also frequently rhodium plated to add shine and sparkle while helping to resist tarnishing.
Rhodium plating is a relatively inexpensive way to turn a yellow gold piece of jewelry into a white gold piece of jewelry, though touch ups are necessary every few years.
Bring your jewelry in and have it rhodium plated at Time Honored today!
