History of silver jewellery and what it is.

Silver

Silver is a precious metal with a chemical element classification is "AG". It is a grey precious metal. Its aesthetic appeal is widely known however few realise that it is the most conductive of all metals for electricity. Silver is most commonly found and mined alongside Copper, lead and Zinc. In chemistry It sits in Period 5, between Copper and Gold, hence why it is a good alloy with these metals.

The Difference between platinum and Silver.

• Silver is slightly softer.
• It corrodes faster than silver with alkali salts such as caustic soda or free lime.
• Although still a precious metal, silver is cheaper than Platinum due to its rarity.
• Silver has a lower melting point than platinum. The skills and techniques for making Platinum jewellery are therefore different.
• Platinum is comparatively dull and lacks the shine which Silver has. This makes silver a lot easier to clean and keep tarnish free.

The silver jewellery conference Limerick 2006.

There is more information on our silver jewellery merchandise and also some useful guidelines for marketing silver jewellery

The malleability of Silver

The malleability of silver make it a versatile semi precious metal to work with. Many fine items of silver jewellery can be hand crafted to immense detail. An illustration of this property is displayed by the incredible detail of this silver bowl outlining the entire history of Cambodia. The bowl is on display in our Plymouth shop. The bowl shows that the uses of silver need not be confined to jewellery.

The Chemical Composition of Silver jewellery

In order to add a little strength and rigidity, copper is added to pure silver to produce sterling silver which is the key ingredient of our jewellery. The proportion of silver to copper is 92.5% to 7.5% copper. Some items, particularly the gemstone set rings are coated with a layer of rhodium which gives the silver an extra shine reducing the amount of polishing. There are no other metals involved except for very small amounts of iron solder used for welding joints on the larger pieces. No zinc, nickel or other allergy sensitive metals are used.

More about silver jewellery

One of the problems in manufacturing silver jewellery is fire scale or as it sometimes known fire stain. This is a red stain that you can see once copper is mixed with the silver. Coppers melting point is 100C above Silver, so once the temperature during soldering etc is close to silver's melting point the oxygen reacts with the copper to form cuprous oxide and then cupric oxide. Another problem is Porosity in which tiny air bubbles are trapped in the silver as it cools down. To prevent these issues, the temperature is controlled to precise degrees and maintained with a consistency that prevents the formation of air bubbles or fire stain.

The obvious method of identifying an item of jewellery or ornament is by its markings, stamp or hallmark. The silver bowl is marked by its maker which often also indicates the purity of the metal used as well as its age. To enable the purity of to be determined there are a range of various silver tests.

The costume jewellery is made from real gemstones. It can be worn as a stand-alone feature or with any item from our range of silver jewellery.

One of the unique qualities of silver is how it can be used with all types of seasonal jewellery making it an extremely versatile metal for jewellers to work with.

Visit our shops in Plymouth, UK to see our collection of jewellery. For detailed information on how to look after silver jewellery see our section on silver-care.

History

Does anything rhyme with Silver

Some say that in English nothing rhymes with the word silver however there are a few such as "chilver" which is a noun meaning ewe lamb.