Silver Scale

I am having a problem with some silver items developing a white film on
the surface after soldering. I have not encountered this problem until
recently. It doesn’t appear to be a fire coat with the typical red
appearance and can only be removed by polishing with a chrome oxide
based polish. I am using a distilled water and sulphuric acid bath to
remove my boric acid and alcohol suspension residue.
Should I be using something else to pickle these items? I have been
manufacturing gold, platinum and silver jewelry for the past 25 years
and this problem has me puzzled.
Any help would be appreciated!

Regards,

Roger W. Kitchens

Home Page: http://web2.airmail.net/rogerk

Roger, fancy seeing you here. What a timely post as I was handling one
of “those” items last night. I believe that the scale must be from a
rhodium or chrome plate being used on Silver jewelry most likely from
dept. stores so as to avoid tarnishing.

I had to remove the plating on the entire item to have it look right, a
real pain. I hope this is not the trend of the future or silver repair
will have a major price increase.

Roger Kitchens wrote:

I am having a problem with some silver items developing a white film on
the surface after soldering. I have not encountered this problem until
recently.

Regards,

Roger W. Kitchens

Randy Chambers
Chambers Fine Jewelers at http://www.dfw.net/~chambers
Food, Shelter and Diamonds. Everything else is a luxuary.

http://www.dfw.net/~chambers/homepage.htm My Home Page
http://www.dfw.net/~chambers/lwsc.htm Lake Worth Sailing Club
http://www.dfw.net/~chambers/fastlane.htm My Links Page
http://www.dfw.net/~chambers/pissed.htm Exclusive! Why I’m Pissed! (you
can add to it)

Roger,
Hi my name is Marc Williams. The problem you are having is one that I have
had in the recent past as well. It most definately is some kind of plating put
on te silver mfg. to try and slow down the tarnishing. This is a major pain in
the neck, especially if you know the peice didn’t come from any reputable
source. What then do you tell your customer?? Hmmm. I hope these manufacturers
realize that what they are doing by plating these peices only causes
headaches… the only real solution is to remove the film entirely and repolish
the peice… Good luck getting in those hard to reach areas… It does make for
a big mess… So all you silver manufacturers out there who think it is a good
idea to cover a peice of silver with some rhodium or chrome type plating
STOP… It only makes our lives harder…lol
MarcFrom: owner-orchid@proteus.imagiware.com on behalf of Randy Chambers
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 1996 9:45 AM
To: orchid@ganoksin.com
Subject: Re: Silver Scale

Roger, fancy seeing you here. What a timely post as I was handling one
of “those” items last night. I believe that the scale must be from a
rhodium or chrome plate being used on Silver jewelry most likely from
dept. stores so as to avoid tarnishing.

I had to remove the plating on the entire item to have it look right, a
real pain. I hope this is not the trend of the future or silver repair
will have a major price increase.

Roger Kitchens wrote:

I am having a problem with some silver items developing a white film on
the surface after soldering. I have not encountered this problem until
recently.

Regards,

Roger W. Kitchens

Randy Chambers
Chambers Fine Jewelers at http://www.dfw.net/~chambers
Food, Shelter and Diamonds. Everything else is a luxuary.

http://www.dfw.net/~chambers/homepage.htm My Home Page
http://www.dfw.net/~chambers/lwsc.htm Lake Worth Sailing Club
http://www.dfw.net/~chambers/fastlane.htm My Links Page
http://www.dfw.net/~chambers/pissed.htm Exclusive! Why I’m Pissed! (you
can add to it)

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