What is, 'gold-filled'?
What really is ‘gold-filled’. What does that mean??
Gold-filled is the most popular new jewellery material at present, in which more than 1/20 of the total weight of real 14k or 10k gold is pressed onto the surface of the base metal.
The gold-filled jewellery must contain more than 5% of real gold by weight of the total weight of the item and it is treated through a process called HPHT(High Temperature High Pressure method).
Gold-filled products are made by compressing gold on the surface of the base metal with the high temperature and high pressure method, and covering it with a layer of gold that is more than 10 times thicker than normal gold plated items, which allows you to take a shower, wear your jewellery while you sleep or you can even wear in the ocean for a swim!
How is gold-filled different from gold- plated?
Gold plated jewellery is a very thin deposit of gold that is electroplated or electrochemically applied to the piece. The thickness of the plated layer can be 1/1000 to 1/1,000,000 of an inch thick, and generally composes 0.05% or less of the base metal.
Gold-plated jewellery has 2 ways of plating.
The first is by dipping into the melted gold and the other is a chemical treatment process to give the colour of gold or silver. In both cases, because of the thin (0.05% or less) gold plating, it is easily scratched and worn off over time, and is easily discoloured or tarnished due to chemical reactions or natural aging of the base metal.
Gold plate vs. gold-filled
Gold-filled is 50 to 100,000 times thicker than regular gold plating, and about 17,000 to 25,000 times thicker than heavy gold electroplate.
How to take care of your gold-filled jewellery??
1.You can take a shower but don’t put them in contact with any oils, lotion, detergents, soap, or chemicals and if you did, please for the love of god rinse them out with clean water and carefully dry them with a towel!
2. You can go into the ocean wearing your pieces but just rinse them off with clean water when you get out.
3.You can sleep with the jewellery too, but just careful with items with sharp pins or more delicate items as you may damage them while sleeping.
4. Make sure you store your pieces out of direct sunlight and or humid environments (such as your bathroom)
If the jewellery gets discoloured, quickly clean them with dish soap and pat dry with a dry clean towel. Clean the jewellery with a lint towel occasionally. You can use gold or silver cleaner but I would not recommend it.
Gold-filled products are in the form of gold foil by compressing more than 5% (this is a legal require ment)of real gold on the surface by HPHT, and as long as you don’t scratch or break your pieces through carelessness they can last you for years.
'OHZO by J’ jewellery only uses the materials imported from USA, from suppliers that only handle products that comply with the FTC regulations of the US Federal Trade Commission (contains more real gold than 1/20 of the total product weight).