Karat with a K

The words karat and carat are often confused in the jewelry world. Karat - with a K - refers to the fineness of gold. You see it stamped on gold jewelry, often as 14K or 18K.

Pure gold is very soft. To increase the strength and hardess to make it usable in jewelry, alloys are added. The alloy ratios can also result in custom gold colors - like rose/pink gold and white gold - and gives us the percentage (or karat) of precious metal used.

Typical Gold Alloy Color Ingredients

• 14K and 18K Yellow: Gold, copper, silver, zinc

• Rose/Pink: Gold, copper, silver (amount of copper increased)

• White: Gold, nickel or palladium, copper, zinc

Gold fineness is based on parts out of 24, meaning pure gold is 24 parts gold - or 24-karat gold.

18-karat gold means 75% or 18 parts of the 24 parts are gold. Six parts are other metals. You will sometimes see this stamped on jewelry as 750.

The most popular gold alloy used in jewelry in the United States is 14K, meaning the alloy always contains 14 parts gold and 10 parts of other metals.

10-karat gold is 10 parts gold and 14 parts of other metals.

The karat gold stamps are normally inside the band on a gold ring, on the back of a pendant or bail, on the end of a gold necklace, inside a bracelet, or on the post of an earring. Can you make out the karat gold stamp?

As always, stay Sparkly!