What Is 14K Gold?

Gold is a valuable precious metal commonly used in jewelery. Gold is often designated a karat weight, such as 14k, 18k, or 24k. This indicates the purity level of the gold.

Gold Purity

In the gold karat scale, one karat amounts to one twenty-fourth pure gold; this means 24k gold is pure gold and 14k gold is 58.5 percent pure.

Alloys

Pure gold can be made into 14k gold by mixing it or creating an alloy with other metals such as copper, nickel and zinc.

Color

Different alloy mixtures can produce different gold colors such as white gold and different shades of yellow gold.

Hardness

Gold is made into alloys like 10k and 14k, due to the fact that pure gold is relatively soft and malleable. Jewelery made from 14k gold is less likely to bend or become damaged.

Price

The higher the karat rating of gold, the more expensive it tends to be, despite the fact that pure gold is not as useful for jewelry.

References

• Info on gold concentration
• Info on gold purity