Gold-filled jewelry is made using a layer of solid gold and bonding it to a base metal. This base metal is typically Brass however Sterling Silver is becoming a more popular alternative to increase it's value. It is more durable than standard gold-plated jewelry and a fraction of the cost of solid-gold jewelry, making it a very popular optoin for most customers.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, the gold layer on Gold-Filled must weigh at least 5% (or 1/20th) of the total weight of the piece.

For example, if a chain weighs 10 grams in total, 0.5 grams of that must be 14K Gold. This calculates to around 2.9% gold purity overall (or 0.29 grams of pure gold out of the 10.0 grams in total). 14K Gold, by comparison, is 58.5% pure gold. Learn more about our metal compositions here.

Gold vermeil and gold-plated jewelry also use a layer of gold over another metal, but the thickness, bonding process, and durability have stark differences.

For starters, Gold Vermeil and Gold Plated jewelry have ~ 0% gold value by weight. Only a microscopic layer of gold is added using electroplating and is measured in units of microns.

For example, if a chain weighs 10 grams in total, the amount of pure gold would be approximately 0.01-0.03 grams. In other words, 0.1-0.3% of the metal would be pure gold.

Both metals use electroplating. This process uses a specialized gold electrolyte solution (aka a gold plating bath) that the piece of jewelry is "dipped" into. These liquids are composed of dissolved gold salts, ions, and additives that create an environment for an electrical circuit to pass a low-voltage direct current through the gold liquid solution to bond the gold ions to the base metal.

Gold-Filled’s manufacturing process is complicated, as there are more steps to finishing the product than karat gold or sterling silver. And much more time consuming than simply dipping a chain into a liquid solution.

A brass rod is inserted into a thick tube made out of solid 14K Gold. The tube and core are then heated and repeatedly drawn through rollers to fuse, or mechanically bond, the metals together. The result creates a wire with a permanent layer of gold over the core.

The wire is then fed through our chain machines and is pulled, twisted and interlocked into chain patterns such as Curb, Rope, Figaro, Cable etc. Each style only requires a slightly different movement or tooling. Click here to see our factory's chain machines in action! After the machinery is done, the chain then undergoes an annealing and polishing process to achieve a shiny, long lasting, yellow gold color.