Silver from Hobby Lobby vs. Monster Slayer??? Problems?
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Original Post
I've been buying my silver wire from Hobby lobby because I have onlyneeded a little at a time, but I decided to go ahead and order from Monster slayer. Order came today and I am trying to make headpins, the hobby lobby silver balls up and when it hits the pickle the black disapears.... the monster slayer silver blackens and doesnt clean up in pickle... didnt come clean in the tumbler and isnt coming clean with elbow grease and a polishing cloth.... As a test I made one pin from MS silver and one from HL silver back to back... same conclusion... MS black HL clean... What could be causing this? Im trying to make 26G pins. I even compared some 22g HL & MS silver and had the same problem.... what could be causeing this and how the heck should I get nice pins from this new silver???? HELP!
Posted at 10:49pm Jul 22, 2009 EDT
Responses
No, fine silver is almost pure silver and tarnishes much slower than sterling. Sterling typically* has copper as an alloy and the copper causes much of the oxidization.
*there are several non-tarnish alloys, the most popular being Argentium.
Posted at 2:24pm Jul 23, 2009 EDT
How well does Argentium do making headpins? The tags on this wire had AG 925 and then 26g I wonder if they sent me Argentium instead of the Sterling I ordered..... But then would it blacken and not come off like it did?
Posted at 3:46pm Jul 23, 2009 EDT
I've heard that Argentium works like fine silver as far as balling up. I doubt the Argentium would turn black...I would return the silver to Monsterslayer.
Posted at 3:51pm Jul 23, 2009 EDT
"Ag" is the chemical symbol for silver. On my spools of sterling wire from Monsterslayer, they wrote "AG STG". On the fine silver, they wrote ".999"
I've never had a problem w/ their customer service, I'd just call or e-mail them.
Posted at 4:00pm Jul 23, 2009 EDT
I think Im going to get some silver froma friend in the same guage as i was using and see how it acts. The Hobby lobby silver is softer than silver ive gotten from other places than MS, so maybe its just me not being used to anything else. Its been over a year since I used anything but HL silver. I usually just use vinegar pickle instead of sparex and stuff. I talked to someone else that said the HL silver acts like fine silver.... This silver did clean off after being pickled it just took longer.
Posted at 4:12pm Jul 23, 2009 EDT
For a pickle that is faster than vinegar and salt but WAY less toxic than Sparex, try alum. I just dump the contents of a bottle from the spice aisle into my crock pot.
I'm guessing that the HL silver is fine, also. I always use MS and never had a problem with them.
Posted at 4:15pm Jul 23, 2009 EDT
I've never had one inkling of a problem with MonsterSlayer, either their products or their customer service. They are tops in my book.
Posted at 4:20pm Jul 23, 2009 EDT
I agree with simplelife, riogrande has always been super nice to me and they have AWesome customer service. I accidentally ordered the wrong ring mandrel one time...they sent me a shipping label so I wouldn't have to pay for shipping.
I don't know why the black won't come off though. RioGrande does have live help though. You have to call first to get a customer number but that doesn't take any time at all. Maybe they have some suggestions?
Posted at 4:31pm Jul 23, 2009 EDT
I tumbled the headpins and they came out fine. Maybe I just need a little stronger pickle for sterling.... lol I checked with a friend that uses MS silver and hobby lobby silver and she confirmed the difference in texture and stuff. She thinks the Hl silver is a little finer silver maybe. I'm happy though.
Posted at 10:30pm Jul 23, 2009 EDT
I tumbled the headpins and they came out fine. Maybe I just need a little stronger pickle for sterling.... lol I checked with a friend that uses MS silver and hobby lobby silver and she confirmed the difference in texture and stuff. She thinks the Hl silver is a little finer silver maybe. I'm happy though.
Posted at 8:06am Jul 24, 2009 EDT