Palladium is a platinum group metal that has been in use for jewelry since 1939. With platinum skyrocketing in price the past two years, palladium has seen a resurgence in jewelry use as it offers similar benefits to platinum, but at pricing comparable to 18k white gold. Ironically, palladium is much rarer than gold (30x) in terms of quantities mined.
Pure palladium for jewelry is 95% palladium, and usually 5% ruthenium (ruthenium is often mixed with platinum as well). Because it is a platinum group metal, it offers the following jewelry related benefits:
- Hypoallergenic - unlike white gold, which is usually mixed with nickel and thus can cause allergic reactions, palladium has no allergy issues.
- True white color - white gold has a yellowish tint in its natural state, since it is yellow gold mixed with nickel in an effort to make it white, but it results in a grey/yellow metal - this is overcome by plating it with rhodium to give it the platinum white look, but the rhodium will wear off over time. However, palladium is naturally a pure white, will not yellow over time, and does not need rhodium plating.
- 10% stronger than platinum - Palladium is roughly 10% harder than platinum, meaning it can wear longer without as much scratching.
- Costs less than half of platinum - Palladium does not have as many industrial uses as platinum, and because it is only lightly used in the jewelry industry (currently), its pricing has not seen the recent spikes of gold and platinum. Palladium thus allows you to have many of the same benefits of platinum, but at pricing competitive with 18k white gold.
The negatives of palladium - palladium is harder to work with in casting, but the price difference has made it more than worth it (palladium must be cast an a special gas atmosphere). Additionally, palladium is lighter than platinum (about the same as white gold in weight) - this can be a negative as many people appreciate the hefty feel of platinum. The upside is that more intricate jewelry can be made with palladium due to its lighter weight, and larger rings won't run the risk of weighing down your finger. Palladium is nearly identical to 14k white gold in weight.
As a rule, we recommend palladium as our default metal wherever possible - it offers nearly all the benefits of platinum but at a price comparable to white gold. Palladium is however 30x rarer than gold, so it really is the metal of choice for our jewelry.
