Gold Colour & Karatage Explained

Because pure gold is soft and pliable, jewellery made of it would be easily distorted and damaged during regular course of wear.  To get around this
problem and make gold jewellery suitable for regular use, and alloyed form of gold known as karat gold is widely used in the manufacture of jewellery.

 

The gold content in karat gold is specified by the symbol 22K, 18K, 14K etc; where the K (karat) number tells you how many parts by weight of pure gold are contained in 24 parts of the alloy. Sometimes pure gold content specified the gold Karatages. The following table lists some of the popular Karatages used in jewellery manufacture and their pure gold content.

 

Karatage Symbol	Proportion of Gold Used	Pure Gold Content
22K	22 parts of pure gold in 24 parts	91.67%  Pure Gold
18K	18 parts of pure gold in 24 parts	75.00%  Pure Gold
14K	14 parts of pure gold in 24 parts	58.33%  Pure Gold
12K	12 parts of pure gold in 24 parts	50.00%  Pure Gold
10K	10 parts of pure gold in 24 parts	41.67%  Pure Gold

 

As well as increasing the hardness, alloying enables gold jewellery in a variety of colours to be made. White gold contains about 10 to 20 percent palladium plus an alloying mix of various metals. However, contrary to popular belief white gold does not contain any silver.  A high percentage of copper gives “rose” or “red” gold its colour.