Care and Maintenance of Sterling Silver Jewelry

Care and Maintenance of Sterling Silver Jewelry

These are tips derived from working with sterling silver jewelry for over eigfht years at HandCraftedCollectibles.com which sell Christian and Religious Jewelry, Celtic and irish Jewelry and so much more.

Sterling silver is an alloy of pure silver and 7.5% other metals such as copper. These means that any piece of sterling silver jewelry is 92.5% pure silver. Sterling silver is the most reflective of any precious metal. Sterling silver by nature is prone to oxidization or tarnishing when exposed to air and other chemicals.

The reason why pure silver isn't used for jewelry is that it is a malleable metal and it will eventually loose it's shape. The alloy hardens the silver making it ideal for jewelry making and affordable jewelry.

Maintenance
The first part of caring for sterling silver jewelry is to properly maintain it thus reducing the need to care for it later.  

1. Keep the exposure to air down as much as possible by storing the sterling silver jewelry in a zip lock baggie.
2. When wearing sterling silver jewelry avoid contact with chemicals. Things as seemingly benign as hair spray or hand lotion can speed up tarnishing.
3. Keep your jewelry off until all grooming is done to avoid unnecessary contact with chemicals.
4. Do not go swimming or hot tubbing in Chlorinated water without first removing all sterling silver jewelry. The Chlorine is one of the worst chemicals to tarnish your sterling silver.
5. Some will paint there sterling silver jewelry with clear finger nail polish to put on a protective coating. While this may work well, it requires reapplying every so often because it will wear off.
6. Scratching your sterling silver can be a problem if you store them improperly. If you choose not to store them in zip lock baggies then at least keep them away from other metals that can rub against the sterling silver jewelry and leave behind small scratches that over time will tarnish faster and degrade the look of your jewelry.

Caring and Cleaning Your Sterling Silver

Sterling silver jewelry naturally oxidizes when exposed to air and other corrosive chemical as previously discussed. Someone discovered that in some cases this was a highly desirable special effect because it helped the etched designs stand out better. Jewelry designers figured out how to artificially oxidize certain pieces. This is important to understand because when using chemical jewelry cleaners it will remove the oxidization that was meant to be there. If the jewelry cleaner was meant to clean sterling silver then it won't hurt the silver jewelry it will just clean off oxidization.

Sterling silver come in two ways, one way is with a plain design that does not have any oxidization on it. The other way is putting a chemically created oxidization in the design to add a patina like quality to help the design stand out.

1. Don't use jewelry cleaner that is not approved for sterling silver.

2. If your sterling silver is mixed with other metals or has cubic zirconia or precious or semi precious stones inlaid them defer to the instruction on the label of the cleaner you are thinking of using.

3. Don't use toothpaste as it is abrasive and can leave light scratches on your sterling silver jewelry piece.

4. The safest way to clean your sterling silver jewelry is with a soft (non abrasive) cloth

Disclaimer. These comments do not apply to silver platting jewelry or sterling silver jewelry with CZ or gemstones. We make no warranty expressed or implied on the suitability of these instructions.

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