Lost Argentium silver ring found still shiny

Jewelry Discussion
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Hello everyone! My father just skyped me, to happy display, on his
finger, the shiny, shiny Argentium silver ring that I had made for
him lastsummer. What made him terribly excited was that he had lost
it in the Fall and found it today, in the garden. What made ME really
excited was that it was extremely shiny still, despite having spent a
full Canadian winter in the snow and a pile of rotting leaves.

A fun little story that I had to share :slight_smile:
Ros

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Hi Ros

Great story, thanks for sharing. I have made some small bits of
Argentium jewelry (badly) and have been impressed at how shiny they
still are, over 2 years now! My shop bought rhodiumed pieces are yuk
in comparison.

Cheers Kerry (in cloudy Chesterfield)

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in the garden. What made ME really excited was that it was
extremely shiny still, despite having spent a full Canadian winter
in the snow and a pile of rotting leaves.

Snow mold is thriving in condition you described. Snow mold is known
for it’s cyanogenesis, or in another word, it produces cyanide as
by-product of it’s life cycle. Cyanide in combination with acidic
environment is a leaching bath, similar to when goldsmith mixes
sodium cyanide and hydrogen peroxide, to brighten up jewellery. The
mystery solved.

Leonid Surpin

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re. snow mold. I’ll get him to wash that off well then - snow mold
doesn’t sound like a delicious wash for the ring. Maybe I’ll toss my
silverplated dinnerware items that are hopelessly tarnished into my
backyard next winter. Actually, they are so impossible to keep
bright that I might even bury them for good back there…Thanks
for the info, Leonid. Always interesting to learn something new.

Cheers
Ros

1 Like
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Ros- Don’t toss your silver plate. Use it. My family ate off of
silver every day. My sister and I still do the same.

If you use it every day, It gets a lovely patina of every day use. I
use a dishwasher but use only the green or organic stye dishwasher
soap without bleach in it and I hand wash my hollow handled knives. I
can put the knives in too but have to turn off the dry cycle.

Ice cream tastes soooo much better when eaten off of silver. As my
friend Sue says…“What! Are you saving this for your old age? This
IS your old age.”

Have fun and make lots of jewelry.
Jo Haemer
www.timothywgreen.com

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Absolutely, silver is much nicer than stainless flatware. These days
I’m starting to count my spoons though…

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snow mold. I'll get him to wash that off well then - snow mold
doesn't sound like a delicious wash for the ring. Maybe I'll toss 
my silverplated dinnerware items that are hopelessly tarnished into
my backyard next winter.

Well I’ll be. My grandmother used to put stained tableclothes out in
the snow to “bleach” them. They always came out perfectly white. Was
it “snow mold” that did the trick?

1 Like
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Couldn’t agree more – use all your lovely things - your best
silverware and your best china. Otherwise when you die and leave it
to your children, they’ll send it to the auction house!

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Well I'll be. My grandmother used to put stained tableclothes out
in the snow to "bleach" them. They always came out perfectly white.
Was it "snow mold" that did the trick?

I do not think so. Snow mold is a fungi which exist in organic
compounds and gets triggered, when conditions are right. When
organics, like leaves are covered by snow, and when snow starts
melting, that where it usually happens.

What you describe is something else. There are a lot of
micro-organizms inhabit snow. What we call stains, is a food for
them. They simply eat the stain away.

Leonid Surpin

1 Like