About Silver

About Sterling Silver

Sterling Silver means an article is 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% alloy. When you hear names like nickel silver or german silver they usually have very little silver content. Sterling Silver has different characteristics than gold. The nature of sterling silver is to tarnish when not being worn. I believe that your body keeps silver from tarnishing and I recommend that you wear your silver than keep it in a drawer. Putting sterling silver in a drawer and not wearing will make the article tarnish more quickly. At Silver Jewelry Designs we recommend that you buy a quality chemical dip that is enviromentally safe to clean your sterling silver. After you dip you sterling silver, make sure you rinse in luke warm water to remove any excess film. Wipe with a soft cloth and now your sterling silver will look like new again. Sometimes your sterling silver gets so bad you will have to take it to a professional jeweler for polishing, once polished the article will be restored to like new condition.

Many of our customers ask if we can size their silver and usually the answer is no. The reason sterling silver can not be sized is because silver is a conductor of heat and when we apply heat at the bottom of the ring the heat will travel to the top and burn all stones set in the ring. We can remove all stones, size ring and then reset but the cost would not be worth doing. Most manufacturers make their rings in various sizes .

Remember that sterling silver is to be worn and enjoyed and not stuck in a drawer. With the cost of silver around $8 an ounce versus $400 an ounce for gold silver is pretty much affordable for everyone.