How to oxidize silver (wire, chain, jewelry clasps)?

A. Silver can be oxidised by dipping in tellurium di oxide and hydrochloric acid 1% or dip in polysulfide solution.

A. Hi Jamee. Grobet/Griffith "Silver Black" [on eBay or Amazon] is one proprietary blackener which, according to its Safety Data Sheet, contains the tellurium di oxide and hydrochloric acid which Panjela mentioned. For practical purposes and in this particular context, 'polysulfide' is liver of sulfur [on eBay or Amazon]

Luck & Regards,


Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. The company you are buying your jewelry making supplies from should be able to supply you with an oxidizer for silver. Liver of sulfur [on eBay or Amazon] works and there are others.

A. I have used "Silver Black" a few times, but have been told the black rubs off of the chain. Maybe I need to clean it better before I put it out to sell. Tim McCreight has a book called "The Complete Metalsmith" [on eBay or AbeBooks or Amazon] and he talks about coloring metal, and also mentions the Liver of Sulfur [on eBay or Amazon] .

Try inter library loan.

A. To oxidize silver: sulfur [on eBay or Amazon] . It looks like little broken pieces of yellowish dirt. USE CAREFULLY....It works almost TOO well. Which will require much polishing OFF the oxidation where it is not wanted.

A. You can also get a nice oxidized finish by putting silver jewelry in a plastic or paper bag with something that gives off sulfur. I always forget what it is, but it is some food item, like a hard boiled egg or such...I'm looking around on the internet, too, since I can never seem to remember what the item is!

A. Hi. The "egg in a bag" is described in thread 1178.

Liver of sulfur is available as a gel, liquid, or powder [on eBay or Amazon] and doesn't cost much.

Regards and good luck,

A. Hi Aimee.
Unfortunately, 'plain round bangles' are likely to remain a problem. If you look at a typical high school ring, you'll see that the best approach when using blackening is for it to be in the recesses because it rubs off.
Luck & Regards,


Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. The easiest cheapest, most readily available method of oxidizing silver is the use of ordinary household bleach [adv: bleach/sodium hypochlorite in bulk on eBay or Amazon] . It turns the silver a dull, dark gray.

A. It is EASY easy easy to oxidize silver. You just put it in bleach [adv: bleach/sodium hypochlorite in bulk on eBay or Amazon] and it turns black!

A. In my studio the demand for oxidized jewelry has been thru the roof. We've found that using dry liver of sulfur diluted in hot water till light yellow works best. Make sure item is very clean and dry (free of fingerprints too). Submerge piece for a few seconds and rinse. Repeat until desired color is reached. *Caution-Liver if Sulfur is very toxic. Use in well ventilated area with tongs to insert and remove your jewelry.
The trick to sealing in the oxidation is to place a dab of mineral oil on your fingertips and then rub into metal. Rub with Kleenex and finish with light polishing cloth. It is beautiful.

A. Keep in mind that liver of sulfur (powder form) loses its effectiveness after a year or so. I purchased a jar of it and mixed a little with hot water, and used this same solution for about a year, just reheating it in the microwave whenever I wanted to use it. Then when that lost its effectiveness, I tried to make a new solution from the same liver of sulfur container, it would not work. I just tried soaking in liquid bleach, and it worked in about ten minutes!

A. Hi, Donna.

The whole purpose of the rhodium plating is to prevent the silver from tarnishing. So the better the quality of the plating, the more it will frustrate your efforts. You can try to polish off the rhodium plating; it is very, very thin, unlikely to be even 30 millionths of an inch thick.

Regards,

A. The method below was written for my website as a way for customers to re-new the antique(oxidized) finish on the double sided coin rings that I craft from real silver coins. The method can be used on any sterling silver or copper jewelry and is completely safe and chemical free.

Maintaining the antique finish..... The dark portion of the two-tone antique finish will gradually wear off as it is simply the natural oxidation(tarnish) of the silver which makes for the dramatic highlighted affect. The process for renewing the antique look is a highly classified, top-secret process that requires a scientist to apply.....Ok, just kidding!
The dark portion is actually very easy to restore at home with...would you believe?.....an EGG?.....yes, an egg.
Here's how it works: First, clean the ring with either rubbing alcohol or with some hot water mixed with a small amount of ammonia [on eBay or Amazon] and a drop of dish soap and then rinse and dry. Be careful not to touch the ring with your fingers after cleaning to avoid getting oils or fingerprints on the ring prior to treatment. Now, hard boil an egg for about 15 minutes after it starts to boil and then carefully place the hot egg (shell and all) into a
doubled-up pair of Ziplock sandwich bags. Now, for the fun part ... smash the egg inside the bag until it looks like it is ready for some egg salad (with shells... mmmm) next, lightly wrap the ring with a small piece of paper towel or coffee filter and place the ring into the bag and seal tightly. Wrap the whole bag in some aluminum foil to help keep the egg hot for as long as possible and leave for at least one hour and then check to see if the ring has darkened all over (if only a portion of the ring has darkened or the ring has darkened unevenly, just rotate the ring and close the bag back up for another hour). The ring can be left as long as desired to get a dark coating all over the ring (even overnight) There is no way to mess this up, so don't worry. Now all you have to do is rinse the ring in water and dry. Next just take the same polishing cloth used for the polished rings and begin rubbing the high points of the ring to remove the tarnish and ... Just like new!
This can be done any time you need to restore the dark portions of the ring. You can even switch between the fully polished look and the antique look anytime you like.

Notes: The egg method is only necessary when the darkened portion has become significantly rubbed off. If the dark portion is still mostly intact you will just need to lightly use the polishing cloth to bring out the shine on the non tarnished (raised) areas.

Very fine #0000 steel wool [on eBay or Amazon] (Grade 0000) can also be used to gently remove the tarnish from the raised areas after the egg treatment if the polishing cloth is not doing the job quickly enough, just rub VERY lightly...remember, you are only trying to remove a bit of the tarnish.

The egg method works due to the natural sulfur content in the egg yolk which just accelerates the oxidation process on the silver. All natural ... and super safe!

Hope this helps!

Q. How do I get in touch with the person who makes the silver coin rings? I've been trying to find someone to make my husband a ring like that. Your stuff looks amazing!

Lisa McCulloh
- Seneca, South Carolina
March 25, 2024

A. Hi Lisa.
Chris' posting was from 12 years ago and his website no longer exists. Whether you will find rings by that particular artist, I don't know, but here is a link to several vendors offering very similar rings on eBay. Good luck!

Rings Made from U.S. Coins on eBay

Be sure to look carefully for what you actually want though: some are actually handcrafted from genuine U.S. coins, but many (especially the inexpensive ones) are just the corresponding patterns stamped into stainless steel.

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. I am familiar with all these methods. What works best (at room temp. even) is a chemical called 'Win-Ox'. It isn't pleasant so don't drink it, but it doesn't smell as bad as liver of sulfur. You can order it from any Jewelry Supply Store. Rio Grande Wholesale or Indian Jewelry Supply (IJS) is a good place to start. You will be satisfied with the results.