Despite the fact that we already habitually estimate the value of silver relations is much lower than that made of gold, silver, depending on the alloy, work and silver sample, can cost more than gold. Of course, in some cases, the subtlety of jewelry work plays a decisive role, because some filigree jewelry making techniques cannot be repeated when working with gold. But in most cases, the test plays an important role.
Jewelry is usually not made from pure noble metals, since they have a certain number of disadvantages. For example, pure silver is a very soft material, so an alloy is made from it with the addition of a small amount of copper to increase its strength. The percentage of copper in the alloy determines the sample and the purity of silver. In very rare cases, other metals are used to “strengthen” silver; nickel, aluminum, zinc and cadmium are used for additives. But in the vast majority of cases, for the silver alloy, the main material is copper.
At the same time, high silver samples, in which copper is present in minimal quantities, have a delightful white hue, and only silver of the lowest sample has a light yellowish hue. But the most expensive silver alloy is its alloy with cadmium, and often in these cases silver jewelry made from it is valued more than gold. In most countries of the world, the metric system is adopted to indicate a silver sample. With it, the number of parts of a noble metal in one thousand parts (weight units) of the alloy is indicated in the sample. The maximum for jewelry is 960, and along with it there are 925, 916, 875, 800 and 750th. In Russia, it has been officially established that if jewelry has a noble metal content below 800 samples, which is determined to be minimal, then in this case they are not subject to state branding and are already sold as products made of base metal.
These products can often be found in everyday life, which are used as material for springs, pins, solder and so on. For this, silver alloy 720 is used. But in European countries, quite often you can find small haberdashery products stamped with 750 breakdowns. However, the 925th is considered the most common breakdown in Europe, except France, in which the 800th is more common.
The highest 960 test is used for the manufacture of the finest filigree jewelry, since only such an alloy of silver allows you to make threads from it, with which the masters then make openwork drawings. No other precious metal has such capabilities. To give strength to filigree products, they are often made of an alloy of silver with cadmium, from which just a magnificent openwork filigree (lace pattern, in which the through pattern is clearly visible) is obtained. However, in this case, the cost of the resulting jewelry from this alloy increases sharply.
Separately, it is worth dwelling on how silver products are cleaned. They must first be washed with warm water with soap and then coated with gruel from chalk, soaked in ammonia. When the applied mixture dries, rinse the product thoroughly with water and wipe it with a dry soft cloth. If silverware is oxidized, you need to clean it with an aqueous solution of sodium sulfate. Silver utensils need to be cleaned just like cleaning silver 925, from which silver knives, forks and spoons are usually made. To keep their shine after use, the dishes need to be dipped in boiling water with the addition of a small amount of soda.