Mixing sliver and copper to make a pink metal

Jewelry Discussion
1

What proportions should I use to make a pink metal using Sterling
and copper?

Brass and Sterling to make a yellow colored metal?

Thanks, JSM

2

Hello,

you can go with 20% Ag and 80% Cu or raise the Ag percentage to 25%
and Cu 75 wich makes one of the many recipes for Sibuichi. The more
silver you use, the whiter the metal.

Brass is already yellow, why adding silver to it? One can make
another yellow metal by adding aluminum (nordic gold) with Al, Cu, Zn
and Sn. You’re only degrading the silver -so to speak- because you
can’t label it as SS nor as 800S.

Depending on howmuch brass you add to the silver, you’re making
silver solder.

Have fun and enjoy
Pedro

3

Hi Jeannette,

Errrr.why would you want to? Sterling is already (usually) a mix of
silver and copper. Get down to about 50/50, and the resulting metal
will be pinkish, but it won’t be sterling, and you can’t legally
call it that, it’ll just be an expensive copper alloy. Shibuichi, of
a sort.

Same thing with the brass/sterling. Brass is already yellow, and is
a mix of copper and zinc. Add silver to it, and you’ll have a weird
trinary alloy that amounts to a very expensive brass. The question
becomes why? (From a safety standpoint, you really don’t want to
torch melt brass anyway: the zinc boils off and is bad to breathe.)

So, what you ask about is physically possible, but there aren’t any
obvious reasons for wanting to do it.

Regards,
Brian.

4

Hi Jeannette,

Just wondering why you want to do it?

Regards Charles A.

5

If you are satisfied with just an outer layer that is pinkish
instead of a full-blown alloy, can’t you just toss some iron into a
pickle pot with some (used) blue pickle and your silver piece in it?

6

I wasn’t planning on callling it sterling but it makes a nice pink
color for something different and I could not remember what per
centage I used last time,

jeannette

7

Jeanette,

first, is it that you want to make Shibuichi? to get a Pinkish tone
by heat treating, then trying to preserve that tone in a component
for a piece you are designing? because a low karat gold alloy would
work far better if you want to, say, make a sheet of the material or
wire, or whatever it is you need as once the sterling or shibuichi
tarnishes and the average buyer trys to clean it, the colour may be
obliterated, whereas in a recipe for a low Karat. truly pink gold
alloy,the colour will be far more stable and permanent.

Secondly, is it that you just want a yellow coloured metal, because
adding a precious metal into any alloy just for the colour, when
there are many many readily available alloys in many many mill
product forms that are far less costly than those containing silver
with very similar working properties. So if I had a clearer picture
of what you are after I could offer you the best recommendations.

Another consideration is, not knowing where you live ( though
presuming the US) putting any fineness/assay mark on a yellow alloy
would preclude calling it sterling, and using shibuichi presents its
own set of remedies in order to communicate the inclusion of a
japanese alloy to your buyers…So if you care to expound on your
objective a more specific answer will be easier to give…rer