Do you know what exactly Sterling Silver is? What it is made up of actually? How can you clean it? And the most asked question of all.why it is used extensively used for the manufacturing of jewelry over and above fine silver.
What is Sterling Silver?
Before answering this question, it is important to understand that sterling silver is not the same as silver.
Although both are counted as elements of silver and also resemble their external appearance and color grading, they are a bit contrasting in reality.
While fine silver is purely made out of silver, without any other metal/substance in its composition, sterling silver has 92.5% fine silver and the remaining 7.5% is copper.
And this proportion of fine silver is the reason why we call it 925 Sterling Silver Jewelry.
This addition of copper does not mean that sterling silver has adulteration in it. Well, keep reading to learn about why copper is highly significant in sterling silver jewelry.
Why Copper is Added to Sterling Silver Jewelry?
Fine silver is the most naturally occurring form of silver. In fact, for sacred and religious uses and ceremonies, like solemnizing a wedding or carrying out a ritual, people always have 100% pure silver on their platplatesss, not sterling silver jewelry. Also, the ornamental value of fine silver is way ahead of sterling silver.
However, things get quite different in the realm of jewelry and gemstones. During the manufacturing of jewelry, the process that is undertaken entails a lot of extensive manual as well as mechanical work.
Being extremely soft and fragile, fine silver can’t withstand this tedious process. Nor the jeweler would be able to mould fine silver into multiple shapes to fulfil on-demand orders.
That’s where the role of copper comes into play. Two basic properties of copper are utilized in the most optimum way to make sterling silver ideal for jewelry manufacturing. Firstly, copper is highly malleable.
In simple words, it can be defined that adding copper to silver would allow the jewelry cutter to mold it to any shape or pattern. Plus, it can be done effortlessly, without much wastage of silver or copper.
So, if you want to surprise your spouse on her birthday with an exquisite and stupendous piece of jewelry, go for shaped sterling silver jewelry Secondly, copper is highly ductile.
To surge the beauty of the wearer, it becomes quite imperative for the jewelry or the gemstone to have standardized stability and hardness. And copper bridges this gap.
This is the main reason why sterling silver jewelry is much more intact, hard and stable as compared to silver jewelry.
In a nutshell, the two main reasons why copper is added to sterling silver are because it provides the required stability and mouldability to sterling silver jewelry. Without even compromising upon the colour or the quality of sterling silver.
How can you Remove Tarnishing From your Sterling Silver Jewelry?
Well, like every other gemstone, sterling silver can also get tarnished and may even turn a bit black when exposed to the impurities of the external environment.
But the good news is that you can easily restore the lost shine and shimmer of your sterling silver jewelry. And for that, we have got for you two homely, yet amazing tricks.
Electrochemical Dip
- Take a glass baking dish and line its bottom with a sheet of aluminium foil
- Pour Luke Warm water into that lined-container
- Add 1tsp of salt and 2tsp of baking soda
- Now just put your sterling silver jewelry in that solution
- Make sure that the jewelry is in the contact with the fine sheet of aluminium at the bottom of the dish
- Just wait for a couple of minutes till the solution attacks the root of the dust and dirt particles to detach them
- Take out the jewelry and just wipe it with a piece of micro-fabric cloth or a jewelry cloth
- You would be amazed to see how magically this thing works
Elbow Grease Cleansing
Your sterling silver jewelry can be manually polished using a soft cloth and precious metal cleaner.
The distinctive patinas of older artifacts are also preserved with this process. Remain gentle. A piece of silver can be permanently harmed and lost value by rough polishing and forceful buffing.
Polishing and Cleaning Products
A soft, yellow cloth that contains a mild solution that can be used to remove the tarnish of your sterling silver jewelry.
This cloth is known as Sunshine Cloth and you can get it while collecting your sterling silver ornaments from the jewelry outlet.
Besides, some polish creams are also available in the market that contains an already-added compound mixture in them.
Not only do these creams remove tarnish and dirt from silver, but they will also lend them a long-lasting shine and an ethereal shimmer.
Sterling Silver Jewelry is Hypoallergenic
Sometimes, instead of being a beauty booster, a piece of that exquisite gemstone jewelry can be quite troublesome for the wearer.
People vulnerable to suffering from skin issues like redness, scratching, itching or skin irritation on coming in contact with certain metals like brass and nickel have to keep themselves miles away from jewelry ornaments, which might have some traces of metals in their composition.
However, sterling silver is pure silver with only a negligible amount of copper in it. This makes it a much safe and more convenient option for people allergic to gemstone jewelry and metals. In simple words, sterling silver is hypoallergenic.
Where to Get the Top-Quality Sterling Silver Jewelry?
The jewelry market nowadays is brimming with countless stores and outlets that are promising to serve jewelry lovers with authentic sterling silver ornaments. Most of these are hoaxes in disguise of promises, indeed.
Looking for High-Quality Sterling Silver jewelry ornaments? Get out our stupendous collection of Sterling silver at Rananjay Exports. We have the most trusted and reliable platform for distributing gemstones and silver worldwide.
Happy Shopping!
Author Bio
My name is Emma Perez, and I have a keen interest in the field of writing. I have written a couple of articles on various gemstones, fashion and would love to express my opinion on more such stones. Hope it has maximized your knowledge of gemstone jewelry and satisfied your quest to buy moldavite jewelry from an authentic place. We believe in quality and offer the same in our information and products.