[Jewelry making - Article 00565] - Re: [Orchid] Yellow Film on Argentium Sterling Silver

[Trevor F]

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Hello Lynda,

>     I love the non-tarnish argentium silver... The yellow film on the
>     piece when it comes out of the oven is hard to remove... I'd like
>     to heat-harden the argent silver jewelry without hardening the bezel
>     material which I make of fine silver.... 

    Good questions... and you'll be happy to hear that the answers are
    pretty simple. 

    Re: the "yellow film". This is normal and to be expected. It is a
    light oxidization that is easy to pickle off. (I assume you know
    about pickle since you mention that you're doing your own bezels).
    Another option is to polish the piece with Goddard's polish cloths
    which removes that light tarnish very quickly. I realize this may not
    be the ideal solution if your work has little corners and crevasses
    as most rings do. I'm told that the Goddard's polishing paste works
    well for this but I've never used it personally so I can't say for
    sure. 

    Re: the bezel hardening. Don't worry, you won't impart any hardness
    to your fine silver bezels by baking them at the temperatures we're
    discussing. Fine silver doesn't harden like the Argentium Sterling
    does so basically it skates right through the baking process
    unaffected. This I have done personally and the results are quite
    satisfactory. 

    Finally, if you haven't had taken a peek at my "Working with
    Argentium" blog yet I humbly suggest you might find it worthwhile.
    Both of the above issues, as well as my experiences with the Goddard's
    cloths, have been addressed on the blog. (Try the "Search" in the
    right-hand column. It's a blog-specific Google search so it works
    pretty well.) To find the blog just follow the "blog" link from my
    home site (http://www.touchmetal.com).

Cheers,
Trevor F.
in The City of Light
Visit TouchMetal.com at http://www.touchmetal.com

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