Anyone used pink silver?

[glowpear]

Hi all,
Wondering if anyone has used pink silver and could share their experiences? I'd love to get my hands on some if anyone knows where to get it commercially? Does it really mark the skin and what can be done to prevent this? Several of the high end stores are creating pink alloys from copper and I'd love to have a fiddle with some as it seems a great substitute for red gold when the budget is feeling a little under the weather.
Personal experiences greatly appreciated (I've already done a google search).
Ta very much!
Glowpear

[mizgeorge]

Only when I've had an accident with steel tweezers and pickle.....

[solitarysmagick]

there is a Japanese alloy called shibuichi which is a pinkish colour. I believe it is 5% silver 95% copper though I may be wrong! :) Not used it myself but wouldn't mind having a go a making some :) I assume that the marking skin bit is due to the high copper content, so to stop that I would use something like renaissance wax or a clear lacquer to seal it. Found this image on google, I love the colour :)

http://www.templ.net/pics-weapons/312-katana/c12dv.jpg

Rachael x

[ps_bond]

Shibuichi is more normally "about" 25% silver (the name means 1/4th). Shakudo is a 5%ish gold in copper alloy; shibuichi does have a lovely salmon colour in the raw, but is more normally patinated to develop different colours. Between the use of silver, copper, gold, shibuichi, shakudo & kuromido the entire piece can be patinated and each shows a different resulting colour; makes for some gorgeous colour palettes.

Kuromido is an arsenic/copper alloy, so not commonly prepared in the home workshop - a bit like mercury gilding in safety terms.

None of those alloys are of hallmarking quality, mind.

[pearlescence]

This is a bit off-subject but still about silver alloys I think...I have a load of vermeil bits and pieces. What would be the result if I melted them down..some sort of electrum? what, if anything could I do with it? is there even enough gold to make a difference?