Argentium Silver (Tarnish-Resisant)
Recently, a customer who ordered a bracelet from my retail site, Beaded Royalty, completely ruined it. I suspect she wore it in a pool or hot tub (things I specifically warn against because chlorine has a burning effect on sterling). I couldn’t prove it, so I bit the bullet and refunded her money.
I believe everything happens for a reason and sure enough, this did too. Since I know that tarnish is the reaction of something with silver and solid sterling has unlimited layers to give up, I tried all the tricks I know to remove the tarnish. The tarnish came off the smooth round beads easily, however, the letters gave me more of a problem. Why would some of the sterling silver give up its tarnish and not others?
My searching introduced me to a wonderful thing called “argentium silver”. Sterling silver is, by definition, 92.5% silver and 7.5% something else (usually copper). Argentium silver is 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper + germanium which makes it extremely tarnish-resistant. Argentium silver is (as you can imagine) extremely expensive and very difficult to obtain. However, there are other types of tarnish-resistant sterling as well. Researchers have been experimenting with substituting different elements for some of the copper in sterling silver for years. I suspect that the smooth round beads were a slightly different alloy of silver, but I can’t prove it (my supplier wasn’t aware of any special properties).
I am hoping that in the future, tarnish-resistant sterling silver will become more prevalent and accessible. In the meantime, treat your sterling with care and respect and it will bless you with many years of beauty.
