What is a \u201ccarat\u201d? Is the carat of a stone the same as the carat of gold?<\/strong><\/h2>\nGold 750 thousandths (750 \u2030) and 18 carats (18 cts) are the two terminologies accepted to designate the same thing: the precious metal of choice used in jewellery.<\/p>\n
Indeed, contrary to what one might think, we do not use pure gold (also called 24 carats) in jewelry because it would be too soft to be worked properly.<\/p>\n
Thus, gold 750 thousandths – or 18 cts – designates a mixture of 75% fine gold (pure gold therefore) and 25% other metals such as silver and copper which will harden the alloy. . It is this proportion (what is called the \u201ctitle\u201d in technical language) which gives its name to 750 thousandths gold.<\/p>\n
There are also other materials used in jewelry: 14 carat gold and 9 carat gold. These feature a lower proportion of pure gold in the alloy: 37% in the case of 9 karat gold and 58.5% in the case of 14 karat gold. Less expensive, their behavior is however less good in time. This explains why 18 ct gold strikes the perfect balance between strength and hardness and has made it the reference metal in jewelery for decades.<\/p>\n
The system of carats or karats (both spellings are possible) was invented in the 14th century to simplify the use of gold in trade.<\/p>\n
For stones, we also use the term carat\u2026 it is however necessary to distinguish between the two notions. Indeed, “carat” is used as a unit of mass for gemstones. For a diamond, we will say for example that it “weighs” or “is” 1 carat: it is quite simply its weight. A carat is worth exactly 0.2 grams these days \u2013 this used to correspond to the weight of a carob tree seed, which had the reputation of having a weight that varied little from one seed to another\u2026 hence the term \u201c carats!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
156 ViewsAn engagement ring is a piece of jewelry that is given as a symbol of commitment . These days, this piece is often a solitaire (i.e. a ring adorned with a center stone). This one can be worked in different ways: with a pav\u00e9 of diamonds around the center stone, on the ring, or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bignewspost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bignewspost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bignewspost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignewspost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignewspost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bignewspost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16,"href":"https:\/\/bignewspost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions\/16"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignewspost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bignewspost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignewspost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignewspost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}