Hi All my boss was telling me, he saw this at a show one time, a
manufacturer who offered a silver alloy that would not tarnish. In
fact it would not oxidize for antiqueing either. does any one know
who makes such a thing? It would really get me in good with my boss
if I could track this down. Sincerely, ROBERT L. MARTIN
Yukhan@aol.com
Robert,
What you are looking for is a casting grain called Sterilite
manufactured by the ABI Precious Metal Co. Phone # 800-878-2242 Ellen
Jantzen
Rio Grande offers it as do most other metal suppliers, such as
Williams Gold in Fort Erie, Imperial Smelting in Toronto. Be careful
not to mix regular sterling and anti tarnish together. You need to
keep your stock separate. Anti tarnish silver has excellent
properties for casting and for a little bit of hand fabrication, but
not to the same extent as regular sterling. Good luck Michaela Wolfert
the first anti tarnish silver for lost wax casting apeared (I think)
in '99. it had no firescale to speak of, however it was too weak to be
very workable i.e. ring stretching. it was also light in weight. this
years new product is alot better. it is both harder and heavier. call
United Casting Grains. I think they call it #237. this should fix you
up. thie patent is owned by several entities. I think Refining 1 also
has the same stuff. I haven’t the Tel #(s) at hand. you’ll have to
track. use the internet. JH
Hey all, Having tested all the anti-tarnish sterling alloys on the
market extensively over the last 11 years, I most strongly recommend
the deox SS grain from Precious Metals West in LA, 1-800-999-PLAT. I
do not recommend Sterilite under any circumstances.
For those of you who might find anti tarnish sterling limited in its
workability, I have very successfully combined copper sterling with
deox in a 50/50 ratio. I acheived much better hardness, color and
workability with no firescale and still retaining good tarnish
resistance.
Remember, ALL silver, even fine silver, will tarnish over time. Fine
silver will give an brownish, cruddy looking tarnish over time, while
the more blackish tarnish of copper sterling is the result of
bimetallic corrosion between alloy constituents.
There is no magic bullet here, just an aid in getting a little bit
better shelf life. Though I use deox sterling in large volume (1,000
oz + per month), I still recommend traditional copper sterling hands
down. To combat firescale without cyanide bombing, I polish with Zam
and Fabulustre and get beautiful, firescale-free pieces every time.
Happy casting!
Mark Moretti
Fredericksburg, VA
www.auagcast.com
What you are looking for is a casting grain called Sterilite manufactured by the ABI Precious Metal Co. Phone # 800-878-2242 Ellen Jantzen
whatever. ABI ins’t the only manufacturer. the patent is held by 3
companies. ABI is one of them.
I think United Precious Metals may have been one of the first to
develop this product. They have several alloys that are suitable for
different applications and a great technical staff to back them up.
You can reach them at 1-800-999-3463.
The alloy from UNITED for Sterling Silver is the master alloy S-88
(www.unitedpmr.com) It works great reducing porosity, anyway, nothing
is going to avoid tarnishing completely. Using the alloy is only going
to delay tarnishing.
Arq. David C. Duhne
Director Tecnico y Comercial
Diamantex S.A. de C.V.