Six common questions about sterling silver jewelry

By Dorotee Joe

Sterling Silver Jewelry has been an important product for thousands of years. One obvious reason is the availability of other precious metals, gold and platinum. The wide variety of sterling silver jewelry requires certain knowledge to choose the right piece and also keep it in good condition as long as possible. The following are the most common questions about sterling silver jewelry.

How do I clean silver jewelry? Depends. Normally you use a jewelry cloth (with two layers of fabrics in different colors) that you can get from a jewelry accessory. Do not use any hard object to clean silver jewelry, even a paper towel could scratch the surface. You wipe the dirt with a piece of jewelry, not nails. Silver-dip is another commonly used for cleaning sterling silver jewelry, which can be obtained also from jewelry. The silver jewelry is completely immersed in the solution for half a minute to a minute, then rinse with water. Make sure the silver jewelry is plated with any other metal before using the silver-dip or the plating is damaged.

Where should I keep silver jewelry? It ‘very important sterling silver jewelry properly when not in use. The place for Sterling silver jewelry is cool and protected from direct sunlight. Heat and glare of light yellow, silver jewelry and bring it to tarnish quickly. Even indoor light source, such as light bulbs and fluorescent tubes once the color of silver jewelry over time. If you’re not going to wear a certain piece for a long time, put in a sealed bag of air and store it in a drawer.

What kind of silver jewelry plating are there? Unlike gold and platinum, however, pure silver is rather unstable and oxides rather quickly. Therefore, silver jewelry is usually plated with another metal to protect it from tarnishing. There are two types of coating metal for jewelry of silver, nickel and rhodium. The nickel plating has a more whitish look and rhodium plating has a darker appearance. Rhodium is used to plate white gold and platinum jewelry and is much more expensive than nickel, and give better protection for the silver underneath. On the other hand, silver jewelry is not plated. For example, high-polished sterling silver jewelry has no coating and the surface is polished by machine to make it shine. Also, “oxidized silver” jewelry is oxidized on purpose to give a dark antique look and is not plated with any metal.

How do I know the purity of my silver jewelry? The purity of sterling silver refers to 92. 5% of silver in the alloy. To confirm the purity, the metal itself should be sent to a laboratory for testing. However, sterling silver jewelry produced most of today has a “925″ stamp to indicate the authenticity of the gem. Although there are cases where stamps are forged and the metal is not silver or the purity is not as described, are very rare.

How to burn around and resizing? Melting point of Engraving and resizing of sterling silver rings is rather simple because of the ductility and relatively low. However, make sure your jeweler understands the process of finishing the ring and have the equipment necessary to do so. Not all jewelers have the equipment to cover the rhodium plating after cutting and welding of the ring. Also, rings with stones are sometimes not resizable because resizing might cause the stones to come out. These parameters include the parameters of channel and invisible.

Can I wear sterling silver jewelry, if I am allergic to nickel? Yes, make sure the jewelry is pure silver, not plated with nickel. Even rhodium plated silver jewelry sometimes contains a nickel layer between the silver and rhodium to act as a glue. So buy only high-polished sterling silver jewelry, if you are allergic to nickel.