Buying wedding rings in Thailand v UK

[Grindting]

My Thai wife prefers the colour of Thai gold and states that UK gold that she inherited would not be bought by Thai gold dealers, even though it was hallmarked. Interesting?

UK gold, has so little gold in it, it's practically worthless.

"Ratner c.r.a.p"

Real gold is the color of Thai gold, mainly because Thai gold is the real stuff.

As for how long it lasts, longer than most marriages.

UK / European gold has less gold in it (at 18k, unless you're buying those hideous sovereign rings, which have as much gold in as thai gold) because people wear jewellery in the UK (on the whole, excluding chavs) because they want to wear a nice piece, so it needs to be durable and last 100 years. They wear the piece for its style, not just because of it's value. Like my wife's mother (classic Indonesian), like you average thai, owns and wears big chunks of gold brackets and necklaces etc, as they are a statement of wealth. Not because of the atheistical qualities of the piece itself. It's tacky as hell, the thai gold mentality is tacky and it's more of an investment and or a statement of wealth than simply a nice piece. They are ugly, and gaudy. I'm glad my wife has more taste and will only wear white gold and platinum, unlike her mother. The only gold she has are some earrings from a boutique maker she got from Liberties london, which have silver, gold and rose gold in the design, with a sapphire. Unique and elegant. Naturally if she slapped these on a scale in a pawn shop in Bangkok she'd lose big time. But surely that's not what jewellery is meant to be about

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Hi Pete,

18K gold is a very good alternate solution for you. The color of 18K gold we use in the west is less intense than "Thai gold" and its significantly more durable. For all intents and purposes an 18K ring will last a lifetime - or more. As another posted mentioned in this string, the color of the gold is determined by special alloys, which are added as part of the production process. I will admint that 18K gold gold is much lighter in color than Thai gold yet it keeps a rich look and feel to it. An overall good choice.

While makers would like you to believe in "special" alloys there is nothing very special about the alloying metals. Certainly there is special knowledge of the exact amounts of metals to add to get the colour you are aiming for (more copper redder, more silver, not so red) but as I mentioned before you can get virtually any colour you want by adjusting the alloying metal proportions. So for that you may need an expereanced gold smith.

http://chemistry.about.com/od/jewelrychemistry/a/goldalloys.htm

FWIW our Thai 18 carat rings are very similar in colour to Thai 23 carat as that was the colour my wife wanted.

Yellow Gold (22K)

Gold 91.67%

Silver 5%

Copper 2%

Zinc 1.33%

Red Gold (18K)

Gold 75%

Copper 25%

Hi Pete,

There is an entire industry which specializes in the design and manufacturing of alloys. The chemistry involved in this process is in fact quite specialized. If one were to simply mix 25% copper to some pure gold and hope that the 18K red gold item would look nice, they would be making a mistake. Not to put too fine a point but, the alloys do not simply change the color, they help prevent porocity, pitting, brittleness, cracking, tarnishing.. several things. The casting of high quality jewelry is tricky and challenging.

At the end of the day, please don't over think this stuff. Whats important to consider is that the ingredients are important to the final quality of your item. This is sort of like buying bread in Bangkok. If you buy a loaf of bread from a Thai baker, it'll taste like sugar and be full of ingredients you might not want in your body. If you buy your bread from a French baker it'll be made with care, taste lovely and the ingredients will be as expected. For several reasons, where you buy your ring matters if only because if you pay for a top quality product you should expect top quality raw material.

Would you be upset if you found out the copper or silver used to alloy your wife's ring was scrounged (or stolen) from a building site or a melted silver tray from a pawn shop? What if your wife gets a rash from the ring you bought her? Ill say this, be careful when / if you start talking with any the recommendations made in this thread. I know of one that you-should-be-very-wary-about, PM me for further info. For my company purposes, I purchase all my alloys from an American company called "United Precious Metals". This company is based in New York and they specialize in properly sourced and ethically manufactured alloys and raw material for the jewelry industry.

Good luck man.

gb

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