Sterling Silver Charms Are the Great Gift For Any Function
Does your wife own massive quantities of 925 sterling silver jewellery? Or maybe you saw a fine designer silver jewellery in the room of your sister? Did you ever wonder what that 925 number meant or even perhaps what sterling means? Not a lot of people ask their jeweler about this.
They are more concerned on how shiny the darn thing is.
Sterling is derived from an Old English word which meant little star because money on that era was made of silver and a star symbol was usually stamped on them.
The number 925 means that there is about 92.
In the case of sterling silver, that would usually amount to 92.
The other 7.
So what about the other 7.
5%? That would be an alloy usually copper although many companies add other metals to the mix to change the silver's properties like better durability or heat resistance.
But before you start throwing a fit on why the silver necklaces for women that you bought for your wife is not pure silver, read on and get enlightened.
Before you go running off to your jeweler and demand a refund for an "impure" silver ring, hear me out.
Fine silver or 99.
9% silver is not easy to work with because it stable only in liquid form and when it hardens it would almost be difficult to shape.
In that case, forming it into a necklace would be a very big challenge.
Hence, many jewelers can shape the silver into many designs like necklaces, rings and even tableware.
So adding an alloy would make tolerate these stresses in order to create quality jewelry without breaking the silver quickly.
Melting, sudden cooling and even hammering can make any metal quiver.
As the purity of silver decreases, its reaction to tarnishing would increase.
However, a big drawback with combining pure silver with other metals is that it can tarnish quickly than when it was at its purest.
Pure silver is not really easily susceptible to tarnishing.
That is why many manufacturers are opting to use other alloys aside from copper to resist tarnishing but maintain its durability.
But you should not worry though because your sterling silver findings can be easily cleaned when signs of tarnishing are seen and maintenance is very easy to do.
But you don't have to worry because preventing and removing tarnished spots are very easy to do.