Red/pink gold and reactions to copper

When I wear brass or bronze jewelry, it takes no more than an hour
before my skin gets gets this green layer, and a Thor's hammer I once
wore for a few hours left my whole chest green. Funny enough, friends
of mine who wore the same had untainted skin.

So: I bring out the worst in copper alloys.

But: I think red and pink gold look good, and consider it for having a
wedding ring made. But red and pink alloys have that colour because of
copper, and so I worry that it would be a rather poor purchase,
especially since I easily tend to "sweat" underneath rings. Are my
fears justified?

I waver between the following alternatives: 22k gold - yellow or pink,
or 24k. I understood from a thread in this newsgroup from Aug 2001 that
24k gold is a perfectly good material to work rings from, provided the
goldsmith knows what (s)he is doing.

-Svein Olav Nyberg

Svein Olav Nyberg wrote:


I waver between the following alternatives: 22k gold - yellow or pink,
or 24k. I understood from a thread in this newsgroup from Aug 2001 that
24k gold is a perfectly good material to work rings from, provided the
goldsmith knows what (s)he is doing.

My and my wife's wedding bands are made from 24K, and they have been fine for
more than 15 years now.

And yes, you do know to work with a goldsmith who knows what (s)he is doing,
because there are some things to take into consideration for this to work.

Good luck,

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

Svein Olav Nyberg wrote:
When I wear brass or bronze jewelry, it takes no more than an hour
before my skin gets gets this green layer, and a Thor's hammer I once
wore for a few hours left my whole chest green. Funny enough, friends
of mine who wore the same had untainted skin.

So: I bring out the worst in copper alloys.

But: I think red and pink gold look good, and consider it for having a
wedding ring made. But red and pink alloys have that colour because of
copper, and so I worry that it would be a rather poor purchase,
especially since I easily tend to "sweat" underneath rings. Are my
fears justified?

I waver between the following alternatives: 22k gold - yellow or pink,
or 24k. I understood from a thread in this newsgroup from Aug 2001 that
24k gold is a perfectly good material to work rings from, provided the
goldsmith knows what (s)he is doing.

-Svein Olav Nyberg

If you came to me to have your wedding ring made, and you outlined this
problem of a reactive perspiration to metals based on copper alloys, i
would advise the following.
you can have the pink coloured gold on the outside of your ring but on
the inside there will need to be a much more resistant to corrosion metal.
A ring made this way uses whats called a double material( a french word
with an accent over the e) meaning of 2 parts. This can be made from say
a pink gold on the outside with a pure gold on the inside. Its not
plating.its where 2 say 4mm thick pieces of metal are soldered together,
then rolled to a length to make the ring sizes you need.
Any true goldsmith can make this for you.
Another option is to use say a titanium underside with a gold overlay
set into the titanium. ?this would have 2 edges to keep it in place as
its still not practical to solder gold to titanium by jewellers means.
I would lend you a titanium ring to try to make sure you can get on
with this metal. It would be pure TI, not the standard industrial alloy
TI V4A6.
Ive had only a few customers over many years that have not been able to
wear copper based ,that is predominantly copper alloys.
Its the sodium chloride in your perspiration in conjuntion to other
bacterial products that cause these chemicals to react and change the
copper to copper sulphate and chloride.

Thank you all for informative replies both on and off-group.

Doubl=E9 sounds like a good idea.

Ted wrote that it's the sodium chloride + bacteria that react copper. I
wonder: Do (specific) metals make you sweat more? I was wondering if
the copper or some other metal could be catalyzing a sweat reaction
from my skin.

As for allergy: I haven't had rashes from the copper based jewelry, but
that is probably because my skin takes so short time to turn blue that
I simply wear it very rarely. I have been married before. My ring back
then was 18k "royal gold", 6mm wide and 15g. It had a heavy presence on
my finger, and I felt I had to take it off a lot to let my skin breathe
and dry. I do the same with watches. But no allergic reactions. The
only allergic reactions I've had are 1) I wore some vulcanized rubber
elbow warmers after an injury, and ended up with measles-like spots
underneath after quite a short time. and 2) Some mysterious bubbling
and cracking of the skin at the tip of my right index finger. My office
neighbour, who has the same, has been diagnozed with "auto-allergy to
own sweat". I have received no other diagnosis than "stress symptom".
Regards,
Svein Olav Nyberg