As you may or may not know that any piece of jewellery that looks silver is not actually made out of pure silver. People don’t know this but silver by itself is an extremely soft metal making it hard to be used to make jewellery. That being said, Sterling Silver, which is silver mixed with another metal, is used to make jewellery.
All the jewellery at Eve Jewellery is made using 925 Sterling Silver that is 92.5% pure silver and the remaining is generally copper. Don’t get disheartened though, 925 Sterling Silver is one of the purest forms of Silver available. Nevertheless, most jewellery is made of other metal alloys and is simply silver plated. To make sure your jewellery is made using actual Silver, you can carry out some of these easy at home tests.
1. Ice Cube Test
If you didn’t know already, Silver is the highest heat conductor, therefore, when ice is placed on top of silver at room temperature it will melt faster than if ice was placed on top of another metal alloy.
For comparison you could place another cube of ice on any other metal object. Just make sure both the jewellery piece you are testing and the other comparison object are at room temperature and have about the same surface area. If the ice melts faster on your jewellery piece, it is most likely made with pure silver. If they melt at the same rate, or it melts slower then you have a fake on your hands.
2. Magnet Test
If you have magnets lying around in your house, they can be used to check for the authenticity of silver. Since Silver is paramagnetic and exhibits weak magnetic properties it will not stick strongly to a magnet brought close to it.
Using a strong rare earth magnet made from neodymium is ideal. These can be purchased easily and cheaply online. If the jewellery piece sticks strongly to the magnet, it is not made from real silver. You can also try lifting the magnet once it is close to the piece, if the piece remains attached and dangles from the magnet, then it is most likely not made of silver.
3. Ring Test
The ring test is definitely the easiest test of them all. Silver makes a loud ringing sound when rubbed against another silver item or any other metal. For instance, if you have a coin, you can drop it on a flat surface if a dull sound is heard your coin may be Silver mixed heavily with other metals.
It is important to remember that while tests may be easy to perform but should be used in conjunction of one another. Furthermore, you should keep in mind that a skilled craftsman can replicate most of Silver’s qualities using other metals. While these convenient tests are reliable, to be certain we would recommend you to visit a professional.
We hope you found these tests helpful!
Citations:
https://parenting.firstcry.com/articles/magazine-simple-6-ways-to-identify-silver-is-real-or-fake-at-home/
https://toughnickel.com/personal-finance/5-Easy-Tests-That-You-Can-Do-At-Home-To-Tell-If-Your-Silver-Jewelry-Is-Fake-With-Pictures
https://www.wikihow.com/Test-Silver
