Summary
Highlights
Tungsten carbide is marketed as ultra-durable but is extremely brittle, shattering easily and impossible to cut off in emergencies. It's ranked F-tier due to its structural liabilities despite its hardness.
These metals are cheap and durable but cannot be resized, cast, or have stones set by a jeweler. Their practicality issues place them in the D-tier.
Gold-plated items have extremely thin plating that wears off quickly, often turning skin green. Gold vermeil offers a slightly thicker plating but is still a short-term solution marketed at inflated prices, earning both an F-tier.
These metals are honest in their appearance but patina heavily, smell like metal, and can stain skin green. While not deceptive, their high maintenance places them in D-tier.
Standard sterling silver, despite being an industry norm for centuries, tarnishes easily, develops fire scale, and is soft, making it unsuitable for valuable stone settings. Modern metallurgy offers superior alternatives, leading to its C-tier ranking.
Most white gold is rhodium plated to achieve a bright white color, which wears off in 6-12 months, requiring costly re-plating. Unplated white gold is a warm pale gray. It's considered a costly imitation of platinum, which is now cheaper, rendering it E-tier.
Unlike standard white gold, palladium white gold uses palladium instead of nickel to whiten gold, making it hypoallergenic, strong, and unplated. Its honest warm gray color and strength make it an A-tier choice, with 18K palladium white gold specifically earning an S-tier for its color.
Platinum 950 is 95% pure platinum, known for being heavy, tough, and displacing rather than wearing down. Despite being challenging for jewelers to work with, its exceptional durability and longevity make it an S-tier metal for customers.
24 karat gold is pure gold, extremely soft, and easily bendable, making it unsuitable for daily wear jewelry. While valuable as an investment, its lack of durability for jewelry earns it a D-tier.
Fine silver is pure but lacks the hardness needed for durable jewelry due to the absence of hardening alloys like copper or germanium. It's structurally weak and prone to deformation, placing it in D-tier for most jewelry applications.
These intermetallic compounds offer unique colors but are extremely brittle, behave like crystals, and are impractical for traditional jewelry making. They need to be embedded in other metals, making them D-tier for functionality.
Green gold, or Electrum, is an ancient alloy of gold and silver, providing a unique color. However, achieving this color without making the alloy too soft or toxic (by adding cadmium) is a metallurgical challenge. It's soft and scratches easily in daily wear, leading to a C-tier.
Yellow gold is a timeless choice, does not tarnish, is durable depending on the karat, and maintains its value. 18K yellow gold (A-tier) offers rich color but is softer. 9K/10K yellow gold (A-tier) is very durable with a classic bronze tone. 14K yellow gold (S-tier) balances durability and rich color, making it the recommended standard.
Argentium silver, redesigned with germanium, offers improved tarnish resistance and can be precipitation hardened to match the strength of platinum alloys. While requiring skilled handling, it results in a brighter, harder, and more durable silver, earning it an S-tier for longevity and performance.