Article about Argentium Sterling Silver

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hi all,

My web guy has put the article that I wrote about Argentium Sterling
Silver on my web site. There are a lot of strange typos, and weird
formatting and odd spaces due to the trouble he has had with putting
a pdf file on-line. We are working to get it into an easier to read
format, and fix the typos, etc. but, since that may take a while, (he
says he is swamped at the moment) and some people really need the
I figured I’d go ahead and give you folks the link.

http://www.cynthiaeid.com/ms-05-07.html

Cynthia Eid

2

Cynthia, thanks to you and SNAG for allowing a reprint of this
article. So cool!

Now, some questions–I noticed you said it didn’t reticulate as well
as regular sterling (hmmm, is there a possibility of having an AS
reticulation alloy, e.g. braass reticulates very well without all the
depletion process). Has anyone had any experience with granulating
the AS? How well will it take a traditional liver of sulfur
iridescent patina? Yeah, yeah, I know the purpose of it is to have
the bright silver color, but I’m intrigued with the possibility of
combining the wild colors of iridescent patina with the bright silver
color. Can sterling and AS be combined, perhaps, since it will still
be .925? Can you forsee any problems with soldering and heat
treating?

I’m looking forward to the day I have the studio back all in one
place (doing the finish work on the new house) and I can play again.
And what a great toy to play with!

Katherine Palochak

3

… How well will it take a traditional liver
of sulfur iridescent patina?

Hello Katherine,

I can’t offer anything on the other questions but I do have
experience using LOS solutions on Argentium Silver (AS) and they work
great. In fact I prefer using LOS on AS as opposed to regular sterling
because (a) it acts a little slower so you get an opportunity for
finer control and (b) the final look is really quite fetching,
silvery under the shades of black if that means anything to you.
Anyway, I like the effect a lot and highly recommend it.

I think it would be great to see what an experienced LOS user like
yourself could do with it on AS.

Cheers,
Trevor F.
in The City of Light

4 
 How well will it take a traditional liver of sulfur
iridescent patina? Yeah, yeah, I know the purpose of it is to have
the bright silver color, but I'm intrigued with the possibility of
combining the wild colors of iridescent patina with the bright silver
color. Can sterling and AS be combined, perhaps, since it will still
be .925? Can you forsee any problems with soldering and heat
treating?

Thank YOU, Katherine, for your enthusiasm, and willingness to
experiment! I definitely do think there are some interesting patina
possibilities with Argentium Sterling Silver. It DOES take on the
lovely iridescent colors of liver of sulfur, though it DOES seem to
need a stronger solution, and take longer. I have not experimented in
this area much----there is plenty still to be discovered! For
instance, I DID notice, the other day, when I heat hardened a
bracelet in my oven, that the parts that had been annealed multiple
times stayed nice and clean. The part that I had done a lot of
“clean up” using rubberized abrasives and 3M bristle wheels, however,
turned a rather lovely shade of green! I admired the green, and then
pickled it clean, but I think that there are some interesting
possibilities----for instance, one could experiment with patina on
Argentium that has been heated to really build up the protective
germanium oxide vs. freshly abraded and scrubbed metal. Each will
patina differently, I am sure.

Cynthia Eid

5

Hi,

The technical article that I wrote for SNAG News about Argentium
Sterling Silver is posted on my website, and is now much easier to
read, with a paler background, and the typos and formatting glitches
cleaned up.

http://www.cynthiaeid.com/argentium_6-10.html

Cynthia Eid