What is carat? You've probably heard that a piece of gold jewelry has a certain number of carats, but what does that really mean? Well, karat is a unit used to describe how pure the gold is, i.e. how much gold is in a gold alloy. The purer the gold, the more carats it has. The scale for the carat unit goes from 1 and then up to 24. Do not confuse the carat unit with the carat. Namely, it is something that describes the weight of diamonds.
How much is 1 carat and what does 24 carats mean?
1 carat is a gold alloy that does not contain much gold. In Sweden, it is even the case that gold alloys under 9 karat may not be called gold. 24 carats simply has pure gold, or at least as pure gold as you can get. If you have gold with 24 carats, the gold content is at least 99.9%. Gold with 24 carats is usually called fine gold and you will find it in, among other things, gold coins and gold bars.What is the difference between 18 and 24 carats?
If you have gold with 18 carats, you have a gold alloy with a gold content of 75%. The difference between 18 and 24 carat is therefore the proportion of gold in the alloy – 24 carat is basically pure gold and 18 carat contains 75% gold. In gold alloys, the metals copper and silver are used, among other things.By the way, do you know why different carats are used in gold? Gold is simply such a soft metal that it would be difficult to make beautiful jewelry with fine details if you were to use pure gold. Since pure gold is so soft, the jewelry would also be very shock sensitive and fragile. Of course, it also depends on the cost. Pure gold with 24 carats is very precious. Jewelry with 24 carats would therefore cost a lot of money and would be difficult to sell.
