Fine silver wire for fused jewellery

[Blue Box Studio]

Hopefully a simple question for those in the know...  I bought some fine silver wire, forget where from but will have been one of the main vendors, thought it looked a bit more dull than my fine silver wire for beading when I cut some earring pins yesterday, opened the kiln this morning and all the wire has gone black, which is a bit of a nuisance as it was 20 pairs of earrings for a collection on Sunday! 

Am I right in thinking fine silver wire won't go black when fusing any more than it discolours when using it with lampworking (OK, different thickness, but same metal?) or has someone slipped me sterling at fine silver costs?

And if this is sterling, is there any way to clean it up sufficiently to have decent quality earrings without any black bits?  I haven't got a tumbler

(Found the order - bought from FUSION DESIGNS & SUPPLIES LTD but someone must have recommended them  as not heard of them before)

Last question - where best to buy fine silver wire and what diameter would you normally use?

[ajda]

I'm sure MizGeorge and others know more than I do, but it sounds like sterling going black when heated as it oxidises/tarnishes... If so you should be able to clean it up with a basic pickle - you can make your own with salt and vinegar, just google it for various recipes and methods. Fine silver will tarnish too, though maybe not as much, and can also be cleaned up with pickle. Fine and sterling are not much different in price, so you may have got the wrong thing, but won't necessarily have been overcharged. Fine silver is soft, though, so not ideal for jewellery. Have you thought about using Argentium silver? It has the hardness of sterling (potentially harder, depending on how your treat it) and heating only improves its resistance to tarnishing.

[mizgeorge]

In honesty Sue, fine silver is far, far too soft to use for earpins - it's one of the reasons why so many people either use stainless steel, or glue on after making.

However, if you think you can harden the wire sufficiently after being so thoroughly annealed as well, you can pickle - as Alan says salt/vinegar, citric acid, or if you've got some alum in your dying supplies, that's better still. A bit of a rub with a polishing cloth will be enough to bring up a shine afterwards.

[Blue Box Studio]

I've used the fine silver for making the loops on which I'll hang the ear wires, I was told that was what I needed to use in fusing. I did not want to use copper. Will try pickling to removed the black.

[mizgeorge]

Ah, if it's for loops they should be OK. Has the silver discoloured inside the glass as well? If so, it's probably sterling.

[Blue Box Studio]

Ah, if it's for loops they should be OK. Has the silver discoloured inside the glass as well? If so, it's probably sterling.

Yes, there is staining   It didn't feel soft enough for fine silver when I cut it but was clearly labelled as fine silver.  I guess get from Cooksons next time!

The earrings I made on my course had what she said was fine silver but not a mark on it and pretty sure she'd not done any more than take them out of the kiln.  Could that have been Argentium then, or something else?  I'm all for an easy life.

Thanks for your help

[ajda]

I've not actually tried argentium in fusing myself, but I'd be surprised if it didn't behave better than sterling in the kiln. It's certainly very different when you blast it with a torch - sterling goes black almost immediately and needs serious pickling afterwards, while argentium just seems to get whiter and cleaner the more you expose it to the flame. Very high magnification shows that the oxidised layer on the surface of argentium is only ever extremely thin - so even if you get some discolouring you can remove it easily with a light pickle or gentle rubbing - whereas with sterling it can penetrate deep beneath the surface, forming firescale, the bane of the silversmith's life. Firescale simply does not occur with argentium. There are two grades - 935 and 960. Cookson now stock 935, slightly more expensive than sterling. I have a stock of 960 and would be happy to send you a sample of that to test out if you want.

[ajda]

Oh, and one other thing - you can heat-harden argentium too. Ideally start with the metal fully annealed, then bake for 2 hrs at 300C - if you do it right it'll be harder than sterling and certainly much harder than fine.

[Blue Box Studio]

I've picked them in some vinegar and salt (no safely pickle now I don't do much silver work) and they have come up presentable but not the shiny that the 'fine silver' I used on my course.  It is only a tiny loop, just enough to hand ear wires from so not sure I'd need to heat harden?  I've never worked with argentium.

Will message you Andy