Ina's Craft Blog

Monday 10 June 2013

Researching metals

Time to get into chemistry. There are so many different metals available that I decided to share this info on my blog.

The picture below has been copied from Urbanmaille. This supplier has an incredible range of jumprings in different shapes.

Argentium Silver is tarnish resistant. A small amount of copper that is found in Sterling Silver has been replaced with Germanium. Argentium Silver is the whitest of all.
Copper is a beautiful material - highly underrated in my personal opinion. Depending on your skin chemistry copper may tarnish quickly or slowly. For example, I can work the copper for hours and you won't notice any tarnish. However, the moment my son touches the chain it tarnishes within minutes. The tarnish on copper adds to the character of the piece. It only takes minutes to get it back to it's original shine if placed in white vinegar.
Sterling Silver consists of 92.5% pure silver. The other 7.5% is usually copper. Sterling Silver does tarnish over time. Again, this adds character to the jewelry.
Bronze usually consists of copper and other metals such as zinc. There is no official standard like you find with Sterling Silver. Again, because of the high copper content Bronze will tarnish but can be cleaned quickly by soaking it in white vinegar for a few minutes.
Platinum Sterling Silver consists of 92.5% pure silver, 6.5% copper and 1% platinum. Like Argentium silver it is tarnish resistant but in comparison to Argentium Silver it is nearly twice the price. I have not worked with this material as yet.
Palladium Sterling Silver contains 3% Palladium and 4.5% copper. Palladium is extremely rare and expensive. Again, I have not worked with this material so far.
Yellow Gold Filled and Rose Gold Filled or Silver Filled - now this is real value for money - not to be mistaken with Gold PLATED! The difference between Gold Filled and Gold Plated can best be explained by looking at the picture below:

14/20 Gold Filled for example means the 20% of the outer layer consists of 14 karat gold. The core of the wire consists of some base metal like copper or brass. Only the gold can be seen and touches the skin. It does not flake off like Gold Plated material. Gold Plated consists of a base metal with a very thin layer of gold.

I will continue this topic including other precious metals such as Rhodium and Titanium and Tantalum. And base metals such as brass, iron, nickel and zinc.