Journal
A practical guide to 18-karat, 22-karat and 24-karat gold for daily wear, bridal sets and temple pieces
Published 14 March 2025
Karat is simply a ratio. It tells you how much pure gold sits inside a piece and how much of the alloy is made up of copper, silver, zinc or palladium. That single number quietly decides two things most people notice straight away: how yellow the metal looks, and how well it survives being worn.
In our Johannesburg workshop we work almost entirely in 18-karat and 22-karat gold. The reason is not tradition for its own sake. It is that each karat does a different job well, and mixing them up is where most first-time buyers run into trouble.
Eighteen-karat gold is 75 percent pure gold. The remaining quarter is alloy, which makes it noticeably harder than 22-karat. That hardness matters most around stone settings. A ring worn every day takes knocks from door handles, gym equipment and car keys, and a softer metal will let a claw shift over time. For engagement rings, everyday bands and anything with a diamond held in place by fine prongs, 18-karat is usually the sensible choice.
It also reads slightly paler than 22-karat. On warmer skin tones this can look elegant rather than washed out, and it pairs well with white or rose finishes if you want a mixed-metal set.
Twenty-two-karat gold is 91.6 percent pure. That is the deep, saturated yellow most people picture when they think of South Asian bridal jewellery. Bangles, temple pieces, heavy necklaces and wedding sets are almost always made in 22-karat because the colour is part of the design language, and because these pieces are worn on occasions rather than every day.
The trade-off is softness. A 22-karat bangle will pick up small dents and scratches with regular wear, and intricate filigree in this karat needs careful handling. If you plan to wear a piece several times a week, we usually suggest keeping the design simpler or moving to 18-karat for the parts that take the most stress.
Pure 24-karat gold is 99.9 percent gold and almost too soft to hold a shape. It bends easily, loses detail quickly and cannot safely hold a stone. You will see it in coins and ceremonial items, and occasionally in very simple pendants that are worn rarely. For anything you intend to wear regularly, it is the wrong material, no matter how rich the colour looks in the tray.
When a client books a consultation, we look at three things before recommending a karat: the design itself, how often the piece will be worn, and the client's skin tone. A delicate engagement ring with a single stone usually lands on 18-karat. A bridal set with matching bangles usually lands on 22-karat, sometimes with 18-karat used for the ring so the setting stays tight. There is no single correct answer, only the one that fits how the piece will actually live.
If you are unsure, bring the design or a photo of something similar to the studio. We can show you the same motif in both karats side by side, and the difference in colour and weight becomes obvious very quickly.
About the writer
Bench goldsmith and karat advisor, Shikhar Jewellers
Meera has spent eleven years at the bench in our Durban studio, working mostly in 18-karat and 22-karat gold. She handles stone setting, resizing and the slow filigree work that temple pieces and bridal bangles demand, and she is usually the person who sits with a client to talk through karat, skin tone and how often a piece will actually be worn.
Her advice on this page comes from the questions she hears most often: whether an 18-karat ring will keep its setting tight through daily wear, why 22-karat reads warmer against the skin, and when 24-karat is better left for a coin or a ceremonial piece rather than a ring you wear to work.
For karat questions tied to a specific commission, the consultation page is the quickest route, and the studio method explains how each piece is documented from sketch to finish.