What is a gold filled chain?
A gold filled chain is a tube of gold which is filled with silver to lessen the total weigh of gold needed to create the chain. It is a thick solid gold tube, which is designed to wear and look like a solid gold chain for many, many years.
Many people ask us what’s the difference between gold filled chains and gold plated chains. The two products are quite different with a gold filled chain being a high-quality piece of jewellery where is the gold plated chain is more of a replica or costume piece of jewellery.
You may have noticed on the Kate & Kole website that we often use a gold filled chains with our solid gold pendants. The reason with made the shift to a gold filled chain is because we’ve been able to get them made locally in Melbourne and they are incredible quality. They are quite different from other gold filled products you may have seen in other stores or and certainly different from gold plated products.
Are gold filled chains good quality?
A well made gold filled chain is a high quality chain and a wonderful alternative to a solid gold chain. Our chains come with a 10 year warranty against the gold wearing off. That means; because of the way that they’re made (from a solid 9ct gold tube which is then filled with silver) there's a 10 year warranty on that outer layer staying looking like solid gold.
What's the difference between a gold plated and gold filled chain?
A gold filled chain has an external tube of solid gold, will a silver centre. In comparison, a gold plated chain is simply a silver chain or brass chain which is dipped in a gold plating which can quickly wear off. Gold plated chains are costume jeweller, where as we see a quality gold filled chain as a sensible alternative to a solid gold chain.
How are gold filled chains made?
The way the gold filled chain are manufactured is by taking a solid tube of gold and filling it with silver. The more correct way of referring to these chains is actually silver field rather than gold filled, but the chains are commonly referred to as gold filled.
Our Melbourne makers production process uses a hollow gold tube, which is then inserted with a solid sterling silver core. This is bonded together in an oven, which glues the gold and silver together, to prevent any air gaps appearing during the next stage of manufacturing. This is then drawn down to size, and bent into shape based on the product that you order. The final product does not have a 'sleeve' over the join, as we produce a seamless, high polish finish.
What if I want a solid gold chain?
You can of course always upgrade to a solid gold chain, however we’ve been so impressed by how these chains wear and look we think you will fall in love with them too. They are also a slightly lower price point, which means we’re able to deliver high-quality jewellery at the slightly lower price.
So am I buying a solid gold piece or a gold filled piece?
All of our pendants are solid gold, we aren't able to make pendants as gold filled pieces in-house. However our Melbourne based chain maker is able to produce these clever chains in small quantities, thats why we offer them as standard with out solid gold pendants.
If you have questions about our chains, please don't hesitate to contact us.