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Step 17Polishing/finishing process
There are a number of steps to finish a white gold ring.
The first is to clean up any surface or casting imperfections. This is usually done manually using grit paper, sanding wheels, buffs and rough buffing compounds.
See this video for a basic walk through of the main techniques:
These days many jewelers also use a tumbling process to burnish the gold to make it highly reflective.
The process of burnishing basically requires a harder metal to be rubbed against a softer one to flatten/burnish the surface imperfections and create a shine. Tumblers use pellets or tiny rods of hard metals loose inside to burnish the gold jewelry, because of this, tumbling is often used to burnish areas not easily reachable with traditional methods. However the process is fairly aggressive so is not suitable for more delicate works.
14K and 18K white gold contain high levels of gold which is yellow (between 50%-80%). In order to keep the gold 'white' 14K and 18K white gold jewelry is often Rhodium plated. This increases the hardness of the surface and also masks the yellow gold color.
So, after basic finishing and tumbling, the ring was Rhodium plated and then buffed to a high shine.
The first is to clean up any surface or casting imperfections. This is usually done manually using grit paper, sanding wheels, buffs and rough buffing compounds.
See this video for a basic walk through of the main techniques:
These days many jewelers also use a tumbling process to burnish the gold to make it highly reflective.
The process of burnishing basically requires a harder metal to be rubbed against a softer one to flatten/burnish the surface imperfections and create a shine. Tumblers use pellets or tiny rods of hard metals loose inside to burnish the gold jewelry, because of this, tumbling is often used to burnish areas not easily reachable with traditional methods. However the process is fairly aggressive so is not suitable for more delicate works.
14K and 18K white gold contain high levels of gold which is yellow (between 50%-80%). In order to keep the gold 'white' 14K and 18K white gold jewelry is often Rhodium plated. This increases the hardness of the surface and also masks the yellow gold color.
So, after basic finishing and tumbling, the ring was Rhodium plated and then buffed to a high shine.
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