Argentium silver cost

Jewelry Discussion
21 
Grain is considerably cheaper than this, but at this point I'm not
quite ready to melt, roll, and draw my own wire. ....

Hello Zen,

I’m happy to hear that your quest has resulted in (what sound like)
satisfactory purchase options for you. You won’t regret the effort:
Argentium is pretty sweet stuff to work with.

But the purpose of my note here is to run up a wee flag on the
purchase of casting grain. When I talked to the guys at Kultakeskus
in Finland (wee reminder: they are the current European supplier of
Argentium) they told me some of the details of how they mix and cast
Argentium and it does not sound like a cakewalk.

To make a long story short they go to pretty exceptional lengths to
avoid any atmospheric contact while they’re mixing the alloy …
plus some other stuff I’m not remembering to well. Whether this
translates into the need to be similarly cautious when melting and
casting the grain I do not know, but if it were me I’d certainly check
that out in detail before I bought a bunch of grain to save some
coin.

Peter Johns, the developer of Argentium, is on Orchid and I’m sure
he’d be willing to answer questions of this nature. He can also be
reached through the ArgentiumSilver.com website.

Cheers,
Trevor F.
in The City of Light

22 
    To make a long story short they go to pretty exceptional
lengths to avoid any atmospheric contact while they're _mixing_ the
alloy ... Peter Johns, the developer of Argentium, is on Orchid and
I'm sure he'd be willing to answer questions of this nature.

Thanks for the heads-up, Trevor. The website does recommend melting
in a controlled atmosphere, but also says that fluxing with boric
acid works, too. Peter Johns, if you’re reading, can you tell us
whether torch melting with flux to pour ingots for forging would be
a problem for those of us who would like to work this way from
casting grain? Thanks in advance.

James in SoFl