Everything You Need To Know To Make Your Own Sterling Silver 925

Math is hard so let me break it down for you so it's easy to understand so you can also make your own 925 sterling silver from 999 fine silver. 😁👍

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#making925 #silver #jewellerymaking #jewelrymaking #goldmaking #silversmithing #diy #gomeowcreations

[awenmckee]

Start with the amount of sterling silver you want to make. Then multiply by 0.925 to get the amount of 999 fine silver you must add. Multiply by 0.074 to get the amount of copper you need. Use 7.4% and not 7.5 % to ensure that you meet the minimum required 92.5% pure silver in order to stamp it with 925. Your result will be a bit lighter than your intended amount, by about 0.1%. Corrections can be made to make sure you have an amount in excess of your desired amount, but this formula should be used regardless to ensure your silver meets the requirements.

[roeygibor]

I believe there is a mistake here... this way you have have calculated the copper weight out of the silver weight instead of the alloy weight combined. The math should be: 31.1÷0.925= 33.6 this is the final sterling weight. Meaning you have to add 2.5g copper and you're done

[jarlathmcnee]

Thank you, I have been thinking of making my own wire and sheets; I just acquired a rolling mill so the plan was in motion. The formula helps a lot. Buying silver/ sterling that is in sheet or wire adds up quickly, while buying shot and making your own saves a tonne. Thank you

[davidsoulereboot]

I have a question about your method. I understand .925 sterling silver to be 92.5% silver and 7.5% other (i.e. copper). By your method, you are not creating that percentage balance in the silver. You are adding 2.3g of copper to an already measured 31.1g of silver, which makes a combined weight of 33.4g. With this new weight, your new percentages are 93.1% silver and 6.9% copper. To correct this, I would suggest that you subtract the 2.3g weight from your 31.1g silver before adding the 2.3g of copper, that way you combined weight still totals at 31.1g and your percentages should be correct.
Enjoy your videos!

[deanguinn]

great video. answered the exact question i had about making my own sterling.

[Lazywatchsmith]

Good stuff. I need to try that water cast grain thing. nearly all of my scrap silver is in large peaces after castings. Thanks.

[Arjuna]

Thanks! I would absolutely do this. I can buy rounds for much less than finished sterling. I also cast, so making my own grain is a plus. I have a flat rolling mill for sheet and draw my wire into the various shapes and sizes I need.

[RadomKidsareme]

Technically, if you’re wanting to utilize all that precision in your scale, you should definitely adhere to using 5 significant figures worth of precision in your calculations. Since you’ve weighed out 31.112g of 99.9% purity silver, you can only assume a maximum amount of pure silver at 31.081g. Divide that by the mass proportion of sterling silver at .925 and you get a total alloy mass of 33.601g. You then subtract the 31.112g you weighed out from the total mass of the copper and silver alloy and you get 2.489g of Copper that needs to be added to achieve a perfect 92.500% sterling silver blend.

The blend you made is 93.1% silver.

[jasonsummit]

One thing with working with pure silver is that it work hardens and works well for making chain as long as the links are thick enough. I made a few necklace chains with wire that is around 1.5-2 millimeters thick for the links and they stay together just fine. But it's great to know how to make .925 in a simplified way as other videos have been too complicated. And it looks like your rolling mills are from Pepe Tools.👍

[James-rfln]

*THIS IS ACTUALLY INCORRECT*

using your numbers 31.1g silver requires 2.3014g non-silver. If you add these weights together you have a final product weighing 33.4014g.

For a final product of 33.4014g to be 92.5% pure it needs to contain only 30.89g grams of silver (33.4014 x 0.925 = 30.89), whereas you used 31.1g of .999 pure silver (31.0689g pure silver)

You would also want 7.5% of your final product (33.4014g) to be non-silver. Meaning you would want it to contain (33.4014 x 0.075) of non-silver which equals 2.505105g of non-silver.

What you've done wrong is work out that you want 7.5% of your starting silver weight to be non-silver when actually you wanted *7.5% of your FINISHING ALLOY WEIGHT* to be non-silver

Real equation is

AG = starting weight of 0.999 silver in grams

Total non-silver required =

[KelvinNishikawa]

Your math is wrong. Adding 2.3g copper to 31.1g of 99.9% silver will result in 93.1% silver by weight.

What you want to do instead is:
copper

[summriver]

This was really helpful, I cast some sterling silver after I watched this and it turned out great! Thank you so much!

[tedadams]

First time viewer here. Very interesting and informative. You are very well spoken and you don't waste time. I appreciate that so much!

[tommywoldt]

The formula you used here would make .931 silver. To get the amount of copper to add from the starting amount of silver, divide the mass of pure silver by 0.925 which yields the total weight of sterling you can make. From this you can subtract the weight of pure silver you are adding to get the amount of copper that needs to be added.
To get the equation, we start with the fact that the purity of silver in the sterling (expressed as a decimal from 0.000 to 1.000) is the amount of silver per amount of sterling.
Sterling purity (0.925) = Silver weight / Sterling weight
Rearranging the equation (using a = b/c -> c = b/a) will show that the silver weight divided by 0.925 gets the weight of sterling.
Sterling weight = Silver weight / Sterling purity (0.925)
If you know how much silver you have and weight of sterling it can make, then subtract the weight of silver from the weight of sterling and you get the amount of copper to add.
Copper weight = Sterling weight - Silver weight
Combining the two equations by replacing the weight of sterling will get you a way to calculate the amount of copper to add from just the weight of pure silver you are starting with.
Copper weight = (Silver weight / 0.925) - Silver weight

[kimgill]

Thanks for this process video … buying sheet & wire is getting ridiculous with the price of silver at around $30 oz spot right now. I have the opportunity to buy .999 at 99 cents over spot and I’m considering trying to roll my own sheet, not to mention recycling all of my scrap.

[kevinhumphrey]

I regularly cast rings using that exact bezomatic torch and it works fine for me. Melts sterling no problem.

[ericfazio]

I've read quite a few of the comments and I'm glad to see that I was not the only one to see that the math is incorrect. The .931 that this math creates is closer to Argentinium silver, which has a minimum of.940 I believe. But, alas, this formula does not make .925 sterling silver. However, it's still legally sterling silver by U.S.A. standards and may legally be stamped as such being that it contains more than the minimum .925 to meet the legal threshold.

[tamaraquintero]

Wow nice! You do a great job explaining everything. Your a great teacher!

[lilrapunzel]

I was 100% going to do this even if I didn't find any instructions on it I knew it could be done so I was going to try, but I'm very glad to know that I was not very far off on technique thanks for the informative video

[vrikshk]

Guru Drona👌👌👌👌
A teacher who can put things directly into our brains