All About Yellow Silver

Silver is a precious metal, but in its pure form it is very ductile and very fragile. To create products from it: jewelry, technical, medical, it needs to be strengthened. This is usually achieved by adding to it various impurities of other metals - copper, cadmium, nickel, platinum, germanium, zinc, silicon. This process is called alloying. Depending on the percentage of pure silver in the alloyed alloy, silver products are assigned an individual test, which is set by the branding method.

Yellow silver is an alloy of silver and copper. Moreover, its color changes depending on the percentage of copper. The alloy, in which half of the copper, is almost reddish in color. Jewelers in their yellow silver work use this feature to add more expressiveness and color variety to their works of art.

Light 925 sterling silver, pure silver color... This test reports that this alloy contains 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% impurities. Platinum, silicon, germanium are used as additional components in this alloy.

Silver with fineness from 720 to 830 is distinguished by a large amount of copper... This not only gives it a golden sheen, but also makes it not very resistant to oxidation. Therefore, these alloys are commonly used in industry.

Fineness 800 is called yellow silver... This alloy is strong, but quickly oxidizes, darkens on contact with air. Has a pronounced yellow tint.

Sample 830 contains 170 grams of copper per 1 kg, which makes it possible to use these alloys to create jewelry.But they are cheap due to poor quality and fast oxidation.

Sample 875 is suitable for making jewelry, decor items and tableware. There is no bright yellow color, rather a golden hue, but such silver loses its attractiveness faster and is difficult to process.

Fineness 925 indicates products from the best alloy composition, from the so-called sterling silver. All high quality jewelry products, coins, decor items and serving made from this excellent composition. This type does not have a yellow tint, the most durable and best suited for gilding. That's why Yellow 925 sterling silver is achieved by applying gilding to it.

Fineness 960 used for highly artistic products. This soft alloy allows you to make plastic and thin parts, filigree bends, but for greater strength, the metal is covered with enamel.

Fineness 999 - it is pure silver, no impurities. But since it is subject to deformation due to its softness, it is not used for the manufacture of luxury goods and household items. It is used to create parts for technical devices.

Depending on what sample the alloy is to be obtained, a ligature (copper) is added to silver 999 in the required quantities. If the mass of copper is 50%, then this will correspond to 500 samples. But such a test and below corresponds to compositions that can be called silver at a stretch, since there is a very large amount of copper. Fine silver starts at fineness 800, where 800 mg of silver accounts for 200 mg of copper.

To clean an oxidized product, you can use a special cleaning agent purchased from a jewelry store... You need to put jewelry in this liquid for a certain time specified in the instructions. This will restore the product to its original color and shine.

At home, you can clean silver using toothpaste. It is necessary to apply it in a thin layer on the product, rubbing it in lightly, and leave it for a few minutes, and then rinse it under running water.

Foil can also be used. Add a tablespoon of baking soda or salt to a glass of hot water and stir well. Add aluminum foil, a few strips are enough. Put a piece of silver there, just do not rub. After half an hour, remove and rinse under running water.

Items below 925 can be cleaned using citric acid or lemon juice. For 925 sterling silver, this method is unacceptable; here you can use ammonia. Add 1 ml of ammonia to 10 ml of water, and lower the product there for 30 minutes. Then we rinse with water, then rub with a soft cloth.

The crash test of yellow silver products is in the video below.