Is It Real Gold?
The difference between gold, gold fill, and every other kind of gold in between
One question I get a lot of with my gold jewelry is, "Is it real gold?". Most of my customers know that I use 14kt gold fill in my jewelry. But there appears to be a lot of confusion about exactly what that means.
Gold jewelry can come in a number of different forms:
- solid gold
- gold fill
- gold plate
- vermeil
Solid gold is just that, gold...top, bottom, and middle. Both gold fill and gold plate is essentially a layer of gold overlaid on top of some other type of metal base like brass or nickel. The main differences between electroplate and fill is the thickness of the layer of gold and method used to bond the gold to the base metal.
Gold plate is made by passing an electric current through a base metal submerged in a liquid solution full of gold particles. When the electrical current is applied, the gold particles are attracted to and deposited to the base metal. Gold plate is classified by how thick the layer gold is and if fine gold (gold not mixed with another metal) or karat gold (gold mixed with another metal) is used. The thickness of the gold layer is measured in "microns" or millionths of an inch.
Gold flash or gold wash has the thinnest layer of gold, less than 7 microns and 10kt gold or higher is used. Gold electroplate has a thickness between 7 to 19 microns of fine gold, and gold plate is between 20 and 99 microns of fine gold. Anything over 100 microns of fine gold is classified as "heavy gold electroplate".
In general, gold plate involves very thin layers of gold. The thinner the layer of gold, the easier it is for the layer to be rubbed off or even flaked off by normal wear and tear. Depending on the type of base metal used, it's also more likely for a thinly plated piece to tarnish with normal wear and tear. Polishing gold wash or gold electroplate pieces can present a problem as it's easier to polish down to the base metal.
Gold fill is made by using heat and pressure to bond a layer of gold to a brass base. Gold fill is measured by the percentage of gold metal to base metal in the overall weight of a piece. For example, if a piece of jewelry is classified as 14/20 gold fill, that means that 5% of the piece is 14kt gold.
As opposed to gold plate, it's less likely that the gold layer will be rubbed off through normal wear and tear. Gold fill also tends to be more tarnish resistant than gold plate. However, it is possible to scratch through the gold layer down to the brass core, so you should take care to avoid deep scratches in your jewelry. Using polishing cloths to shine your piece should present no problems with gold fill pieces.
Vermeil is actually another version of gold plating. Vermeil involves plating a layer of fine gold over sterling silver metal. The layer of gold over the silver has to be at least 100 microns in thickness to be classified as "genuine" vermeil. Vermeil is more expensive than regular gold plate because the gold is plated to sterling silver.
Photo by Auntie P
