palladium

Could someone write me a few sentences about pros and cons of palladium, and
maybe do a little comparisson of palladium vs. most common jewellery metals
(gold, silver, platinum)?
I'm guessing Peter wouldn't have a problem writing one of his usual short
(10-15 page) essays on the topic(s)...:-)

All I know about palladium is that it has a history in jewellery (up to mid
20th century I think), that it's about half the price of gold (in terms of
material), that it's quite mellable, quite hard (scratch resistant), that it
doesen't tarnish, but also that it's (quote) "tricky to work with,
especially when repair is needed".

Thank you!


Marijan

On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 09:54:58 -0800, in ¸õ "m4816k"
wrote:

Could someone write me a few sentences about pros and cons of palladium, and
maybe do a little comparisson of palladium vs. most common jewellery metals
(gold, silver, platinum)?
I'm guessing Peter wouldn't have a problem writing one of his usual short
(10-15 page) essays on the topic(s)...:-)

All I know about palladium is that it has a history in jewellery (up to mid
20th century I think), that it's about half the price of gold (in terms of
material), that it's quite mellable, quite hard (scratch resistant), that it
doesen't tarnish, but also that it's (quote) "tricky to work with,
especially when repair is needed".

Thank you!


Marijan


You called/

Palladium is not such a common metal for use in finished jewelry just by itself perhaps
because it's not quite as good as platinum itself as a material, so people tend to use
platinum, rather than palladium. But it does get used. One of the most common examples
is that you can buy die struck settings (heads/ crowns, etc) made in palladium, as an
alternative to white gold or to platinum. They offer greater durability than white
gold, without the cost of platinum. As I'm sure you know, it's major use in jewelry is
as an alloying metal to produce white gold alloys, rather than using it by itself, but
it can be used just by itself.

The differences, other than price, which is already a dramatic difference, are
primarily in that palladium is much lighter than platinum, so it doesn't have the heft
and feel of platinum, and as well, it does not offer the total freedom from oxidation
during fabrication. While it does not tarnish in use, it does oxidize during soldering,
and this must then be dealt with. It is not qutie as tough and strong as platinum
either, so jewelry made from it won't last as well as platinum work, but it may well
outperform nickle white golds in some ways. It's greater softness/malleability, as with
platinum, will make stone setters happier to work with it than with nickel white golds

From a practical standpoint, there are some problems working with palladium in that it's
more like platinum than like gold in it's working properties, and not all jewelers will
know how to handle it. In particular, gold solders, while they adhere to palladium (or
platinum) do not form as good and strong a bond as they do to gold (or platinum), since
the great difference in melting points prevents as much diffusion of the solder into the
palladium as occurs with gold, and the ability of palladium to oxidize can also lead to
joints that are not as strong as expected. One solution is to use platinum solders when
joining palladium, as these bond well to it, but then one has to contend with the
greater costs of such solders, and their melting points are above what can be used with
gold, if one is combining metals. And because platinum solders are optimized for
platinum, the color match to palladium may not be as good as hoped, though it's not that
bad.

In general, I consider palladium to be a bit more difficult to work with than platinum
itself, and not qutie as satisfying a material. It's a bit harder to solder, and
melting down scraps to make new ingots is trickier, given the oxidation problems wtih
palladium. And it's not qutie as malleable, strong, or ductile as platinum. But if
the economics of a piece make platinum itself impossible, then it's an option one can
consider. And in some ways, it's easier to work with than some of the harder nickel
white golds (which can be a royal pain in the backside sometimes), as well as not having
potential problems with skin allergies to nickel.

Hope that helps.

Peter Rowe