Silver Lovers Rejoice!

Silver Jewelry. It’s beautiful, and as jewelry makers, whether we use silver beads, silver findings, silver wire, or silver plate, this metal is an important resource for many of us. But, there’s always been one fatal flaw - tarnishing. Eventually, no matter how carefully you protect your silver from oxygen, silver tarnishes, and it’s time to polish it. However, this could soon be only a distant memory for silversmiths and silver jewelry lovers due to a Middlesex University silversmith named Peter Johns. After about 10 years of experimentation, he has developed a tarnish free silver.

I talked with Mike DiRienzo of The Silver Institute about this new product. He explained to me that many people have tried in the past to create silver that would not tarnish, so they were skeptical when they heard about John’s break through. However, they had it check out by some silver analysts, "So, we’ve seen it, and it works. We’re very excited about it." While he made sure that I understood their organization does not endorse the new silver, they do agree that this is for real. There really is a tarnish free silver, thanks to Peter Johns.

Of course, my next question to Mike was how do we get some of this wonderful silver? Currently, as far as I could discover, it is not available in the United States yet. However, according to a press release by The Silver Institute, "Frank McAllister, former Chairman and CEO of Asarco, and John Lefgren, of Lefgren Corporation have formed Vaasa Limited, a new venture to market this product in the United States. That firm is now engaged in discussions with various manufacturers about introducing this product to consumers here." I hope they talk fast!

At this point in its early history, this new silver is currently being produced in limited amounts by a company in Helsinki. The reason for this is due to the fact that the not-so-secret ingredient is a substance called germanium which is found in Kazikstan. For more information about germanium, I had a quick (and not very painful) chemistry lesson from About.com’s Chemistry site. The addition of this element to the silver will increase the cost by approximately 10 percent. However, I’m sure like myself, many silver workers would gladly pay the extra cost.

I’m going to continue to do some research on this break through product and will pass on any news I discover. However, for now, unless you live in Helsinki, we’ll have to wait (impatiently).

You can find more information about tarnish free silver at
Press Release from the Silver Institute
Apecs Investment Casting

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