Hinges - Silver - Where To Find?

Q: Hinges - Silver - Where to find?

A:-Silver is harder and stronger than one might suppose. Sterling silver is. Pure silver is a lot weaker and softer than sterling -- which is why silversmiths use sterling for most things. If you want to see what pure silver is like, play with some plain bezel wire sometime. Oh they'll tarnish. It's just that pure silver tarnishes more slowly than steriling. But it still tarnishes. For something like a jewelry box, the silver wouldn't have to be all that thick -- if you used sterling. You could probably use 18 gauge nicely. I'm not entirely sure I understand what you mean here. The main reason most silversmiths use sterling is because it is considerably stronger and longer wearing than pure silver. Sterling is only about 7 percent copper so you don't save that much money by making a piece in sterling rather than pure silver -- that is if you could make the two pieces equally thick. However you'd not only have to make the pure silver piece thicker, it would accumulate nicks and scratches much more quickly. I think you're undoubtedly correct here. There are many names for the technique because cultures from Japan to Norway have traditionally practiced it. Inlaying silver wire into wood or metal is much easier than learning to cast. A lot of that 'wire' inlay you see is actually strip silver (called 'bezel wire' in the trade which is inserted into cuts made with a jeweler's saw. I learned the technique from a friend of mine, a wonderful woman who sadly died in December.) It makes for some beautiful pieces. Silver combines wonderfully with wood. Onk? You get an absolute mirror finish on silver by simply polishing it correctly. I don't know about commercial products, but I know most silversmiths don't rhodium plate their pieces. -No problems here at all, mostly a matter of sematics. Of course I was refering to commercial products (chains mostly) that are rhodium plated. They will never tarnish. Otherwise the jeweler would need to continually polish his stock to keep it shiney. Wasn't refering to hand made items by real smiths and I am aware that silver can be polished to a shine or a variety of other finishes applied. As far as bezel wire is concerned, it is so thin that sterling or fine silver bends about as easily. heavier gauge gets increasingly more difficult even in fine silver.. Suffice to say thay I work with fine (content, not craftsmanship necessarily) silver quite a bit for suitable applications. For stuff like earings or pins that that must be light and/or thin, then absolutely sterling is more suitable. Casting is pretty easy and I do a little using different methods. Having never done inlay, it appears more formidable. A matter of my ignorance I suppose.

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