Religious Jewelry Gold Choices – Learn What Karat Means

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(Free-Press-Release.com) November 14, 2011 -- Are you confused by the difference between 10 karat, 14 karat and 18 karat gold? You probably know more is better, but what does it really mean? When you go shopping for jewelry, knowing what the karat description means can make you a wiser, and therefore better, shopper.

High quality jewelry is created from a variety of materials, including a number of different metals. The choices of metals include silver, stainless steel, platinum, titanium, and gold. Gold tends to be one of the more popular choices based on its beautiful color and perceived value.

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Religious Jewelry Gold Choices – Learn What Karat Means

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Karat is the standard measuring unit of gold purity. To illustrate the use of this measurement for jewelry, you might find a piece of gold jewelry and say it is 18 karat pure gold, indicating the ratio of gold to other materials in it. Whenever gold is made into jewelry it is usually mixed with other elements like silver or copper, because pure gold is generally too soft to be functional in jewelry. You will usually find the karat measure listed in product detail descriptions with the abbreviations kt, k, or K.

You may see the term karat used interchangeably with another seemingly similar term – carat. They actually mean two different things. If you find someone using the terms karat and carat interchangeably, you might want to question their knowledge of the subject. Carat is a unit of weight for precious stones, 200 milligrams, and has nothing to do with gold. Karat is a unit of purity of gold, equal to 1/24 of the whole.

To determine gold purity karat rating, use the following formula:

- Karat rating = 24 X (Amount of gold in the metal / Total weight of the metal)

As an example, an 18 karat gold piece would calculate this way:

- 24 X (18 parts gold / 24 parts total weight) = 24 X .75 = 18 karat

To get a simple ratio of gold to other alloys, divide the karat rating by 24.

Examples:

10k = 10 / 24 = 42%
14k = 14 / 24 = 58%
18k = 18 / 24 = 75%
24k = 24 / 24 = 99.9%

Or, just remember that a karat is equal to 1/24th of the total weight of the metal to get the ratio.

Using these examples, you can see why an 18k gold piece, with a 75% ratio of gold, should be more expensive than a 10k piece, at 42% ratio, since it contains almost twice the amount of gold. When the gold ratio gets up to 22k and 24k, it’s generally considered to be too soft for some forms of jewelry, such as a man’s wedding ring.

Other gold karat measures are used in different parts of the world. To illustrate, a 14k gold item could be marked 585, 14kt, 14kt or 14K. An 18k item could be marked 750, 18kt, 18kt or 18K.

In the United States, 10k gold is the minimum karat designation that can be called gold, and the Federal Trade Commission has standardized karat markings,. These regulations require items 10-karat or greater are to be stamped with either "K" or "Kt." and it is against the law to “under-karat”.

So, that’s the basics of the karat rating for gold. You have now graduated to amateur jeweler status and should feel a little more comfortable the next time you go shopping for jewelry.

More information can be found online at http://www.religiousjewelrygiftshop.com/

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