Back in 2014 I experimented with it, it is an alloy of 3.5% copper, 1.5% germanium and rest silver. It is an alternative to the traditional 'sterling silver' which is 7.5% Cu, rest silver. The latter has problems with firescale which is hard to remove with polishing. The firescale is a result of annealing between working to the metal. So I alloyed these elements and made Argentium silver (confusing name as 'Argentum' without an 'i' is the official IUPAC name of the silver element itself). It turned out indeed very good, no firescale. Recently I made a small bowl of 3" diameter, weighing 51 grams, hand hammered from a 1.5mm thick sheet which I casted and rolled myself. The repeated annealing between the hammerings did not result in firescale, unlike Sterling. Does somebody have experience with Argentium ?
Beautiful bowl! I've worked with Argentium a little with wire wrapping, but have never tried casting it. How did the alloying go? Any problems, tips, or tricks? I want to try making a tarnish-resistant copper analogue to Argentium (Cuprium?) by melting a couple % Ge into Cu.
Alloying was no problem. Yesterday night I converted sterling silver scrap to Argentium by diluting it with the same amount of fine silver and adding 1.5 wt % germanium. I put all stuff in a crucible and melted it and poured in a sand mold for a sheet blank and two wire blanks. The liquid alloy is very good to pour. I rolled the 3.2mm sheet blank to 1.5mm thickness with a few intermediate annealings and ot wat completely firestain free ! It looks like aluminum. NOTE: Annealing should not be too hot, only to dull red (in a barely lit place) which is 600 C. Then allow it to cool until all incandescense color is gone (i.e. < 500 C) before quenching in water. Otherwise it will crack. Germanium copper is worth a try which I still have to try. I made similar copper bowls which I sprayed with transparent lacquer to prevent tarnish.
