[Jewelry making - Article 00021] - Re: [Orchid] Sterling Silver and Nickel

[richard hart]

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>     but why couldn't sterling silver contain nickel? If sterling is
>     defined as .925 parts pure silver and.75 parts something else, why
>     couldn't the "something else" be nickel instead of copper? Granted,
>     it would have different qualities and it wouldn't be what we
>     commonly think of as sterling silver, but it would still meet the
>     specs, right?

    Right. But: 

    I have had customers that said they were allergic to sterling
    "because it contains nickle". Investigating this, sometimes what
    happens is that someone buys sliver plated earrings and has a reaction
    and the person is told, "you are allergic to the nickle in the
    sterling". I have helped a lot of customers that thought they were
    allergic find out what the problem was and be able to wear sterling
    again. Sometimes it is as simple as hygene. 

    If they use alchohol to clean before putting the earrings on, there
    is no problem. I do not see the value of misdiagnosing the cause of
    allergic reaction. This is where and why the misinformation is
    generally distributed. So the question is, if there is no sterling
    that any of you can buy from any vendor that contains nickle, isn't it
    misrepresentation to "educate" your customer that sterling contains
    nickle? 

    And the issue is, if sterling is represented as containing nickle,
    and it does not, I believe that the disclosure criteria applies here
    as well. I have been fabricating and casting sterling for 37 years. I
    have never run across sterling that had nickle in it. Now, how do I
    know? I believe that if they could manufacture sterling with nickle,
    we would all be using it, because there would be no firescale. Don't
    ya think? Assumption on my part, sterling alloyed with nickle is
    probably a miserable metal to work with. It just simply is not the
    truth.

Richard Hart


 
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