Using Copper

[mizgeorge]

How lovely! I'll come and sit with you in nortyland Sarah - but I might have to borrow some bits of horse to live up to the name properly

[enigma]

Lol! I have twenty horses here George, plenty to spare!

[Kathryn Harrison]

I suspect I'm very cavalier about the whole thing. I cheerfully use one pickle pot for both silver and copper (both separately and together - bearing in mind that some designs use both metals) and happily put them in the same polishers, both magnetic and tumbler.

I've yet to have any problem.

Me too I've never heard anything about not pickling them together though I guess doing lots of copper in there means you'll have an even more spectacular plating incident if you grab the wrong tweezers... Mmmm pink silver.

[Claire D]

I often pickle silver and copper together, and haven't had any problems, same with tumbling together

[ps_bond]

https://patternedart.wordpress.com/2...ume-gane-ring/

[Kathryn Harrison]

I made a ring with three copper dots that my mum has worn for 4-5 years and I've seen the corrosion first hand, anything worn next the the skin with do it right? Worn daily it has probably corroded by .1 mm over that time enough to be noticeable dip.

[enigma]

https://patternedart.wordpress.com/2...ume-gane-ring/

great article thanks Peter!

[Claire D]

A really interesting article, I especially liked the part about making sweat solution - I used to work in a textile lab and had to make it (along with saliva solution, sea water and chlorinated swimming pool water) to test the colourfastness of fabric dyes.

[TangerineDreams]

Thank you for everyones help!

Sounds like I just overcomplicated using copper, I've made lots now and have had no issues with pickling and tumbling with silver!