Why Argentium is awesome and why it is tricky

If there is one thing I love, it’s troubleshooting and problem solving. So when Erin Cuff asked me about why her Argentium sheet was cracking, I got excited (to help, not gleeful that she was struggling).

First of all, Argentium is sterling silver with a twist. If you haven’t tested it out before, it is a tricky alloy, but one with a lot of benefits.

It uses germanium in place of most of the copper in sterling, making it not only firescale resistant, but also tarnish resistant.

But it is also fussy as hell!

If you touch it or move it when it is red hot, it can crumble before your eyes. No quenching this alloy either or it will crack. It fuses beautifully, but you’d better not move it while soldering.

So why work with Argentium instead of regular sterling?

• It fuses better than regular sterling, making it ideal for producing big batches of stacking rings without solder.

• The firescale resistance makes it a great choice for anything with a wide surface area that you don’t want to spend too much time sanding.

• The tarnish resistance makes it a great choice for the inventory that you send to galleries as it is less likely (though not 100%) to tarnish under light and heat.

Erin’s question about Argentium

Erin is skilled in using Argentium, but still had a question about why it wasn’t behaving during a fusing process. This was her core question.

“I have fused a design to the flat sheet, but for some reason the sheet keeps cracking when I am heating the piece, and now when I am bending it into a cuff form.  I don’t touch or quench while it’s hot.  Do you have any tips for how to fill the cracks?”

And my Answer about Argentium:

“Great question! And a very typical problem for Argentium even if you don’t touch or move it during heating.

One possibility is that if you are starting with a work-hardened argentium sheet, when you heat or anneal the sheet, it will warp and that warping will create cracks – ones that you might not see at first. If you start with a dead soft sheet this might help prevent warping.

Another possibility is any air or space below the sheet – if there is a gap under the sheet while you are heating it, it will buckle into that space and develop a crack – one you might not see while fusing.

You can flow solder into the cracks, but you might find yourself in the same position if the sheet isn’t totally flush to the solder board the whole time. 

Using charcoal as a solder surface for larger sheet pieces can also prevent this. You can preheat the charcoal before laying down the argentium sheet and get a more even heat.

I heat my charcoal block before laying the sheet down and the even heat seems to help it do better and warp less, but it’s not a sure thing.

To fix the crack for now, I would seek out someone with a laser welder if you can.”

I also let her know that there are other alloys of tarnish resistant silver like Sterlium, which is not supposed to crack as much during heating and annealing. I haven’t tried it yet, but it sounds promising.

Other alloys include Continuum Silver – sterling that uses palladium in place of most of the copper.

Before using alternative sterling alloys in your work, I highly recommend buying a small amount and testing it with your jewelry.

I found that when I started using Argentium years ago, I had to adjust how I worked in small ways. For instance, if I was used to pushing my piece around the solder board, I now had to pause and allow it to stop being red hot before moving it.

What questions do you have about using alternative alloys of sterling silver? Drop them in the comments below!