United precious metals has a product called Sterilium, which is a
combination silver/palladium. Has anyone had experience with this
product and what are your thoughts about working with it. I am
looking for a silver alternative that has no copper but works
similar to silver. Anti tarnish is not important but I am concerned
about if it work hardens quicker or has any other weird
characteristic that is not forseen. I have a ring project for
someone who is sensitive to copper, but am also interested to see if
it takes enamel, too.
The United Silver alloy you are looking for is Silvadium not
Sterlium. Silvadium is a Sterling Silver alloy with Palladium and
does not contain copper. Sterlium contains copper and zinc, it is not
suitable for enameling. The Silvadium Sterling Silver has a high
palladium content and no copper or zinc, it has been enameled
successfully. It is easy to cast and fabricate. Silvadium Sterling
Silver is currently available in casting grain only.
Best regards,
Jim Sivertsen - United Technical Dept.
Thanks Jim for the clarification, yes, it is the silvadium. I had
been looking at both and got my notes crossed up.
Thanks for the comments, it helps. Fine silver is just too soft. I
use Britannia sometimes, and can enamel on it, as well as on
Sterling (carefully), but even the Britannia is soft. Am looking for
an alternate that is harder, and had hoped that someone had used the
Silvadium and had some notes to share.
If you need any technical on the different silvers from
Stuller. You can call the 4300 ext. tool tech line or email off line
and we will fax you sheets on the metals…
I have found I do like Sterlium a lot, esp, when I’m polishing.
Polishing is so much more efficient and there is very little
firescale to cleanoff. The Sterlium sheets clean up neatly. As
someone who hadn’t the best experience with Agentium but with
Cynthia Eid (fellow faculty withme at Metalwerx) keeps prodding me,
I keep trying. I now pretty much order Sterlium instead of sterling.
I’ve gotten better with Agentium and now working with it, but
Sterlium, I like more. It’s much more forgiving in soldering than
Agentium. I don’t fuse, but braze everything because my work
requires much brazing. I just use regular silver solder with no
ill-effects and white paste flux. As for scrap, I just throw
together all of the clean (no solder) silver scrap which is a
mixture of oldsterling, Agentium and Sterlium and melt it down.
Rolling out is no problem. It’s not worth it for me to try to
separate all alloys and dealwith each one separately. Just a happy
convert to SterliumJoy ps - the reason I order primalily from
Stuller is they are fast, they have most of what I need and the
stone settings are superior to Rio or most other suppliers.
As for scrap, I just throw together all of the clean (no solder)
silver scrap which is a mixture of old sterling, Agentium and
Sterlium and melt it down. Rolling out is no problem.
This is actually pretty amazing! I wonder what sort of working
properties will appear in alloys with different percentages of these
silvers…:-)…!
Ouch on melting all the clean scrap together with different silver
alloys!! I promise to behave and not name names but I have had
rather bad experiences with mixed silver alloyed sheet from a
certain supplier. How do you explain raising splinters while
polishing a sheet earring on the buffer from the middle of a piece?
How do you explain black cinders coming out of a piece of “sterling
silver sheet” when cutting it up. There are. More stories, but why
bother. Needless to say, I am quite careful about separating my
silver alloys. Since each has its own quirks, why tempt fate?
I am wondering what is your preference for polishing compounds for Sterlium? New to using sterlium and normally only use Fabulustre after sanding. However, noticed it gets shiny, but there seems to be more scratches than when I was using it with 925. I am using the same buff, so maybe that is a issue? Thanks Nicolina