Here are a few facts to consider Platinum as the perfect metal for your engagement ring:
- Although platinum is rare with only 5 parts per billion in Earth crust weight, it has surprisingly become just as affordable as gold.
It is a stunning brilliant silver/white metal. It is resistant to tarnishing and corrosion. It does not oxidize and it is malleable for jewellery manufacturing. Because platinum does not tarnish and being a pure metal, it does not need any plating to keep its colour, making it perfect for a diamond engagement ring.
- Being one of the transition metals that also includes titanium, copper, silver and gold, means that it can bond easily with other elements. Platinum is a very dense metal, about 6 times the density of a diamond and 21 times the density of water. Calculated in weight that translates to 21.45grams per cubic centimetre. A platinum ring will thus weigh about 38% more as the same design in 18ct yellow gold, giving it that solid feeling of value.
- Platinum has a melting point of 1768˚ Celsius. It takes a highly qualified jeweller to work and understand the properties of Platinum to create a perfect piece of jewellery. Special care is taken when working with this metal in a clean environment as to not contaminate it during the process. Jewellers will keep a separate set of tools to work with platinum. Cleaning the item properly before polishing is important as any particles left on the surface will make it difficult to get a high polished look.
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- Platinum has its own group of metals that include rhodium, palladium, iridium, ruthenium and osmium. These group of metals are often used together to create highly durable parts for tools, machinery and jewellery. For platinum jewellery there are three different alloys: Platinum with cobalt, Platinum with ruthenium and Platinum with iridium. With the first two alloys, cobalt and ruthenium, 50 parts out of 1000 is added to the platinum. In the case of iridium 100 parts out of 1000 is added.
- About 80 % of the world’s platinum is mined in South Africa. Another 10% is mined in Russia and the remaining 10% in North and South America. Almost 14 times more gold than platinum is mined annually. 50% of this is used in catalytic converters to reduce toxic gases in automobiles.
- 30% of the mined platinum is used for jewellery. The famous Hope Diamond is set in platinum and is also a favourite metal of Elizabeth Taylor for her diamonds. Famous jewellery houses, Bvlgari, Harry Winston, Cartier, Faberge and Tiffany created timeless pieces in Platinum. Its white lustre is the perfect mirror for diamonds.
- The international standard for a kilogram is measured by a cylindrical piece of platinum. 40 of these cylinders were distributed all over the globe in the 1880’s. Scientists created a cylindrical hunk of mass called the international prototype kilogram (IPK) from platinum and platinum-iridium alloy.
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