Hi all
had the weirdest thing happen. Sold a coin ring to a lady and it was
just a little too big so as she lived 300 kms away from me I gave her
a discount of $15 to get it resized.
If she lived near me I would have made on in her size.
Well a couple of weeks later at another market a lady looked at my
stock and said “I resized that ring. For the price you discounted
it.” She was from the town the customer came from. And really liked
the ring was made from Argentium rather than sterling which, because
of firescale prefers to work in gold. Loves working in Argentium, no
firescale etc. now.
So thanks to Peter Johns for inventing Argentium and thanks again
Cynthia Eid for bringing it to Australia. It has really changed
silversmithing here.
Now Argentium is available through various suppliers but buy from A &
E Metals as they make it and supply other bullion dealers. That said
Palloys cast in Argentium and A & E do not cast yet. A & E also do
special orders in Argentium and it is a bit more expensive than stock
items in Argentium.
After working with Argentium for 6 months I find it superior to
sterling in every aspect.
It anneals and solders slightly differently from sterling but that
is easy to learn and A & E’s website has good basic directions,
Argentium International and Cynthia Eid have very detailed
instructions on their sites.
all the best
Richard.