What is Argentium® Sterling Silver 970?To help clarify what AS 970 is, here are a couple of simple definitions to help describe the differences:
Fine Silver: More than 999/1,000 pure silver (99.9% pure silver). Fine silver is considered by many to be too soft for fabrication and use in many forms of jewelry.
Sterling Silver: An alloy of fine silver (92.5%) and other metals, usually copper (7.5%). US law states that all objects marked "sterling," "925" or "925/1000" must contain no less than 92.5% fine silver.
Argentium® Sterling Silver 925: Argentium® Sterling Silver 925 contains at least 92.5% fine silver, but replaces a small amount of the copper that is usually the other 7.5% with germanium.
Argentium® Sterling Silver 970: Argentium® Sterling Silver 970 is like Argentium® Sterling Silver 925 except that it contains at least 97% fine silver.
Why use Argentium® Sterling Silver 970 instead of fine silver?
1. It also improves the tarnish resistance even further than AS 925.
2. Those who have trouble wearing regular sterling silver jewelry should have little or no trouble wearing AS 970 because of it's low copper content.
3. It‘s much harder! AS 970 can be precipitation hardened in the same manor that you would harden Argentium® Sterling 925.
How hard is it?
AS 970 will precipitation harden to the same hardness as AS 925 (approximately 120HV). After precipitation hardening AS 970 or AS 925, you should notice quite a difference, depending on the thickness of the metal, as I did when I precipitation hardened an adjustable ring http://argexp.blogspot.com/2005/08/heat-hardened-argentium-sterling.html .
To help get a better understanding as to how hard it is, please click on the following link http://argexp.blogspot.com/2006/04/hardness-argentium-sterling-vs-gold.html .
Where can you get it? As far as I know the only place to get it at this time is Stern-Leach.
How does it cast?
More to come soon!
Fine Silver: More than 999/1,000 pure silver (99.9% pure silver). Fine silver is considered by many to be too soft for fabrication and use in many forms of jewelry.
Sterling Silver: An alloy of fine silver (92.5%) and other metals, usually copper (7.5%). US law states that all objects marked "sterling," "925" or "925/1000" must contain no less than 92.5% fine silver.
Argentium® Sterling Silver 925: Argentium® Sterling Silver 925 contains at least 92.5% fine silver, but replaces a small amount of the copper that is usually the other 7.5% with germanium.
Argentium® Sterling Silver 970: Argentium® Sterling Silver 970 is like Argentium® Sterling Silver 925 except that it contains at least 97% fine silver.
Why use Argentium® Sterling Silver 970 instead of fine silver?
1. It also improves the tarnish resistance even further than AS 925.
2. Those who have trouble wearing regular sterling silver jewelry should have little or no trouble wearing AS 970 because of it's low copper content.
3. It‘s much harder! AS 970 can be precipitation hardened in the same manor that you would harden Argentium® Sterling 925.
How hard is it?
AS 970 will precipitation harden to the same hardness as AS 925 (approximately 120HV). After precipitation hardening AS 970 or AS 925, you should notice quite a difference, depending on the thickness of the metal, as I did when I precipitation hardened an adjustable ring http://argexp.blogspot.com/2005/08/heat-hardened-argentium-sterling.html .
To help get a better understanding as to how hard it is, please click on the following link http://argexp.blogspot.com/2006/04/hardness-argentium-sterling-vs-gold.html .
Where can you get it? As far as I know the only place to get it at this time is Stern-Leach.
How does it cast?
More to come soon!
