4 Important Factors About Sterling Silver Jewelry Wire

Every jewelry crafter has their own preferences when it comes to a particular medium. When it comes to stringing beads, some prefer to use cording, strings, leather or wire. Jewelry wire is one of the most multipurpose mediums to use, as it can be used to string the beads themselves, or worked to make findings and settings for gems and crystals. Wire made out of valuable metals is the best to use for most projects, and the most affordable of them all these days is sterling silver. In this article we will discuss some important facts that you will need to understand about this material before starting your next project.

What Is Sterling Silver Wire?

This type of jewelry wire is defined as malleable wire that must hold minimum ninety-two percent silver content in order to be deliberated of sterling silver level. A near perfect grade is also available, usually at 99.92 percent holiness. When compared to other valuable metal wires, sterling silver is usually considered to be the easiest to locate, purchase and use than any other, particularly gold.

Diameter

The diameter of jewelry wire is one of the major deciding factors as to which kind will be used in a particular project. The diameter of the wire means the thickness of a single strand. This is commonly expressed with the word 'gauge' followed by a measurement in millimeters. The bigger the number, the thinner the wire. 26g would be the thinnest, while a gauge of 6g would be very thick.

Temper

The temper, or the firmness of jewelry wire has a straight correlation to its malleability. This is commonly described in one of three ways: dead soft, half hard and full hard. Dead soft is the most malleable, taking very light effort to shape and mold it into the desired form. Half hard is also malleable, but maintains its shape better than dead soft. The more you work the wire, the harder its temper will become. Full hard is best suited for creating simple findings and pieces, like earring hoops and rings.

Melting Temperatures

Lastly, another benefit of using sterling silver wire is that it can be a very cheap method of melting and soldering individual wires into more tangled pieces. Weaving with this wire is not unheard of, and a wire with the proper melting temperature could easily be turned into sheets of glaring silver to grace earrings, chokers and necklaces. The beautiful grade of this wire will have a melting point of around 1760, 1660 for lesser grades.