durability/appearance of charms

[jennifer]

I have purchased many charms from R&T over the years.  Some wood, some brass, some sterling silver, some pewter, some bronze, etc.

I have been asked three questions with regards to them...

1)  Are the sterling silver charms tarnish-resistant?

2)  Which material is the most durable?

3)  Do people ever mix materials on the same bracelet or is it generally all silver, all pewter, etc.?

Thanks!

[PrairieGal]

All silver will tarnish unless it has a coating on it. Most charms I've seen are not coated.

Don't know about durability but they are finding gold and silver coins that are 100's or even 1000's of years old in old shipwrecks and archeological digs so I would say it holds up well.

Most of the bracelets I've seen stick to one type of charm, but hey, if you are the "artist" you can mix and match as much as you want!

[Russ Nobbs]

Even if the sterling is coated with an anti tarnish lacquer, it will wear off

Some sterling has an anti tarnish lacquer coating to prevent the goods from tarnishing while in your display. That coating wears of with, um, wear and then it will start to tarnish. Some of our findings, clasps, chains have that anti tarnish coating. Our charms do not.

Most durable? Between gold and silver, 14Kt gold resists wearing away better than sterling silver. Pewter, a tin, zinc and/or lead alloy is softer than sterling silver. Other basemetals (steel, brass, copper clad steel, stainless steel) are harder than sterling but charms are usually not cast from them. Some stamped charms are made from these basemetals.

Usually charm bracelets are all one material, that is all sterling. Basemetal bracelets might mix pewter, plated brass, plated steel chain, etc. When to comes to stringing bead designs many different things can be mixed together.

If I didn't exactly answer your questions please let us know.