316L Steel & PVD Gold

What it is actually made of

Two materials, and what each one will and will not do over the years you wear it. No marketing words we cannot back up.

316L SOLID THROUGH

Solid alloy, not a coating over something cheaper.

316L stainless steel

316L is the grade used for surgical instruments and body-safe piercings. The L means low carbon, which is what stops the alloy breaking down at the grain boundaries and starting to rust from the inside.

It is the whole piece, not a layer. Cut a link in half and it is the same metal all the way through, which is why a scratch on steel stays silver instead of exposing something yellow underneath.

The nickel question, answered properly

316L is not nickel-free, and anyone telling you otherwise is guessing. It contains roughly 10 to 14 percent nickel, bound into the alloy structure.

What matters for skin is not whether nickel is present but whether it is released, and 316L releases almost none - far below the European limit for items worn against skin for long periods. That is why it is used for implants and piercings. For all but a small number of people with a genuinely severe nickel allergy, it is the safest metal you can wear at this price.

If you know you react to surgical steel specifically, email us before you order rather than after. We would rather talk you out of a piece than take the return.

PVD 316L

Gold fused to the steel, not sitting on top of it.

PVD gold

PVD stands for physical vapour deposition. The piece goes into a vacuum chamber, the gold is vaporised, and it bonds to the steel at the molecular level.

Ordinary electroplating dips the piece in a chemical bath and leaves a soft layer sitting on the surface, held there by an electrical charge. It is cheaper, and it is the reason cheap gold jewellery goes patchy at the clasp within a season.

A PVD finish is harder and considerably more scratch-resistant. It is still a finish, though, and this is the honest part: over years of daily wear it will thin at the points that rub - the clasp, the underside of a ring, wherever it catches a cuff. That is wear, not failure, and every gold finish on earth does it eventually.

What to expect, plainly

It will not rust 316L holds up to sweat, rain and everyday water. Dry it and move on.
It will not go green Green skin comes from copper in cheap alloys. There is none here.
Steel will scratch Any metal does. On solid steel a scratch stays the same colour as the rest.
Gold will soften with time Years, not months, and at the contact points first. Chlorine and salt speed it up.

Anything that is a fault rather than fair wear - tarnishing, the finish lifting, a clasp giving way - is covered for twelve months. The Valor Promise · Care instructions