I too am a bit late to this post but some years back I was informed
You know how the story goes Etc…
Short story long
Some pieces I have come across have diamonds set in what looks like
sterling silver bit it has not tarnished.
So the question is,
Is there an alloy of silver /gold (insert alloy) that looks silver
but will not tarnish
Alan Tilsley FGAA Dip DIA
Hi Mark,
Don’t take everything you read in historical fiction with even a
mountain of salt. Some very few of the authors go to some trouble to
get the details right, but most don’t know, and couldn’t care less.
They’re telling a story, and that’s all that matters. They believe
that the Vikings rubbed their swords with sand, so off their guys go
to fetch some sand. I’m minded of a guy who does a whole series of
Anglo-Saxon adventures where the main character seems to always be
hopping on and off various horses, using stirrups that didn’t arrive
in England for another 400 odd years. Little things, no?
That said, one of the reasons I really love Jack Whyte’s “Camulod
chronicle” series is that one of the main characters is a late Roman
blacksmith, and he gets the mindset right. He even gets the
techniques right, more-or-less. The guy thinks like a blacksmith.
(I can make anything if I can just figure out what to scrounge,
and where to set my gear.) Clearly, Whyte had both talked to, and
probably done some work with, modern blacksmiths who knew a fair bit
about period techniques. He gets the details right in ways that
people who’ve just read about it probably wouldn’t. There are
differences between modern practice, and late Roman technique, and
he actually twigged to those as well.
My main reference for the charcoal was probably Theophilus. (On
Divers Arts) C1150. I honestly don’t remember where I found it, but
it was probably Theophilus.
Regards,
Brian
Richard who is HOJ? How do we contact them? You got my attention when you wrote safe on all gems, pearls, solid opals.
It’s also good on triplets 
CIA
The Japanese traditionally used charcoal for for one step in
finishing/ polishing of soft metals and some folks still do.
JCR jewellery cleaning system.
Is this not the same principle as the SpeedBrite cleaners?
Al Balmer
The Japanese traditionally used charcoal for for one step in
finishing/ polishing of soft metals and some folks still do.
If one takes a candle and a piece of clean glass and a brand new
cotton hanging motor buff and then you light the candle and blacken
the glass with candle soot.
Then you wipe that soot onto the clean cotton buff and use it to go
over the rouged surface very, very softy after the very last rouge,
it gets a perfect surface.
I had to do a flat gold watch face and it worked very well.
Hans- Great tip. When I did a lot of silver holloware and flatware
repair I used to use the old candle soot trick to hand polish pieces
that I had repaired. After repairs the pieces were too shiny and new
looking so I’d hand rub candle soot onto the surface. it leaves a
lovely older looking finish so that the repaired piece wouldn’t stand
out against the other parts of the tea service etc.
Have fun and make lots of jewelry.
Jo Haemer
timothywgreen.com