In the chart below, you will find the melt and flow points. As I stated earlier in understanding your materials, you must always be sure that the solder you are using flows at a lower temperature than the materials you are joining. When working with silver, the melting point for .999 fine silver is [...]
Category Archives: Jewelry News
Silver solder has other metals, besides silver, alloyed into it. The alloy is primarily silver but the additional metals provide sought-after characteristics for the purpose of bonding. Copper (Cu) is soft and a great heat conductor plus it's resistant to corrosion. Zinc (Zn) and tin (Sn) have really low melting points, which lowers the [...]
While researching for this article on silver jewelry solder, I was surprised by how much I learned. I did not know much about the science behind soldering and it was fascinating to learn about the process in more depth. Soldering joins two or more metal surfaces by using a compatible alloy that flows at [...]
Mild soapy water and a toothbrush - a child's soft toothbrush and a mild detergent is the perfect combination for cleaning golf-filled jewelry. The detergent can remove residue or fingerprints from the item, and still leave it shiny and bright when it's done. Be sure the toothbrush is soft or it may scratch your [...]
Silver reacts to sulfur. If you know anything about this element, it's everywhere. In fact, humans have used sulfides for years! It is in the air we breathe, soil, common beauty products, smoke, fertilizers, foods, gasoline, pollution...etc. The list is so long there is no way to cover it in a blog, but trust [...]
There are two commonly used tests to determine the silver content in an alloy. X-ray testing is non-destructive but requires special, expensive equipment. Jewelry must be sent to a lab for x-ray testing. This test is fairly accurate on most silver items. However, it can be fooled by layered metals and some types of [...]
There is a great deal of quality silver coming out of Bali, Thailand, and Mexico; however, that silver should also be marked and identified with a quality stamp and/or quality disclosure. There are also much lower grade silver alloys from these nations that are described with just the nation of origin. The name of [...]
Tibetan silver and many other types of silver described as "tribal" silver etc are base metal alloys that are only silver in appearance. Contents of the alloys vary tremendously and many contain no silver content whatsoever. Some of these imports from exotic lands contain dangerous metals such as lead. Buyer beware. This jewelry should [...]
Nickel silver is a bit of a misnomer because "silver" describes the color of the metal and not the content. This is a base metal alloy consisting of primarily copper with nickel and/or zinc. This type of silver is an inexpensive base metal that is similar in appearance to sterling but, again, it contains [...]
This is a base metal type of silver with an extremely thin plating layer of silver applied to the surface. Even when jewelry is described as fine silver-plated, the overall silver content is a tiny fraction of a percent. Silver-plated jewelry is affordable costume jewelry. Plating can tarnish and will eventually wear off to [...]