Questions about pewter finish on findings & beads

[Luann Udell]

Like many other people, I'm looking for ways to hold the price line on rising sterling silver prices.  AND I'm concerned about the quality/content of 'mystery metal' from China.

So I have questions...   

First, I know sometimes when I do a product search for R&T items, I get directed to a product information page.  Now that I'm looking for the darn thing, I can't find it.  If you have a link to information about how to decide about substituting for sterling, please help out my fevered, aging brain.

I've gone back and read Russ's in-depth discussion of lead in children's jewelry, and was alarmed to learn a product may be lead-free, but not cadmium-free.      Isn't cadmium even worse??  And 'sterling silver' from India may be 30% cadmium?  Holy mackerel! 

I know R&T is doing their own product-testing, so guess where I'm going to buy my base metal headpins from now on?   

1. I'm using base metal findings for a high school craft class I'm working with.  I ordered from a fairly local, trusted supplier.  (Sorry, R&T it was a beading emergency!) 

When the findings arrived,I was surprised when the base metal headpins (usually brass & plated brass??) were so soft, they looked/handled like something you buy at Michaels.  Some of the kids in the group are already sensitive to most of the cheap metal jewelry sold at WalMart.  So I'm nervous about them using these in their creations. 

Are most of the formerly-sturdy base metal headpins now coming from China and India? 

Are there any standards as to what we're really getting in grown-up jewelry findings?

Is 'soft' an indication that the metal may not actually be brass?  Am I better off with half-hard, or not for sure?  I noticed immediately that the 2" antique pewter headpins from R&T are the real half-hard ones, which I'm impressed with.  Good on you!

I'm also looking at replacing some sterling silver 'daisy' heishi with antique pewter finish ones.  I'm seeing more pewter finishes on base metal from different venues. I'm shocked at the variance in pricing.  Wish I'd checked out yours first!  (And yes, I'm ordering some as soon as I finish here.)   

A lot of questions to say, even with vendors I've dealt with for years and trust, I'm finding questionable products.  I hope the standards and safety issues for imported supplies are tightened up soon, before somebody really gets hurt.

[Polly]

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc (and occasionally tin), and by varying the amount of zinc you can make harder or softer brass, as well as change the color. So it is entirely possible that those pins are still brass underneath. 

5% zinc is very soft brass.
White brass is more than 50% zinc, or can be around 65% copper, with the remainder zinc and tin or nickel. (Brass, zinc and nickel is often called nickel silver in Europe and the Americas, and White Brass in Asia. There are other alloys of nickel silver too though.)

Brass used in jewelry is commonly 5% to 20%, and maybe as much as 33% zinc.

We do have this page about metals and alloys used in jewelry.
An alternate way of getting to that page is by clicking into products' details, and then clicking the "About Metal Colors" link. (This puts you directly into the "Colors" section which is the middle portion of the page.)

[Russ Nobbs]

Good questions as usual, Luann, just toooo many of them.    

First let be be honest, We don't test every batch of every item, just random testing from most questionable vendors. So it's possible for us to sell things that are not as we expect them to be. We correct it as fast as possible but mistakes do happen.
Second: Because the rules and age limits about jewelry for children vary from state to state we do not sell products intended for use by children. (Children are defined variously as under the age of 7 or under the age of 13.)

Cadmium is worse.
We have tested some silver from India to find up to 30% silver because its a trick to adulterate sterling that is not detectable by the usual nitric acid test for silver content.

I still don't understand why cadmium in basemetal stuff. Economically it does not make sense.
Today  lead, tin and zinc are all around $1.00 per pound. Cadmium is 10 time higher at$10.40 a pound. Silver is about $580 a pound. Copper around $4 a pound. Market prices vary of course.
Cadmium  is not an economical substitute for lead. It IS used in small quantities to make low melt metals flow better. Somewhere in China someone is recovering cadmium from some scrap operation and using it for jewelry. They would probably make more money selling ti as cadmium instead of substituting it for lead, tin or zinc. That's a puzzle I don't understand.

There are HP and EP coming from China. Ones we tested appeared to be copper or brass based. (Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc.) I'll check with buyers if we've seen pewter ones (Pewter today is tin  or tin and lead.)

Soft may merely be in indication of using dead soft wire because it is easier to form or cold head.
If you have nitric acid for testing silver you can verify that the pins are primarily brass by seeing if the bubble up green when you put nitric acid on the pins.  In this case green is good. It indicates copper based alloy. (I see Polly answered part of your questions \, also.)

The daisy spacers (Bali style daisy beads) from Tieracast are made in the US with tin based Britannia metal. Lead and cadmium levels are well below California and CPSIA levels. Other state levels vary.
See  http://www.tierracast.com/safetyoverview and http://www.tierracast.com/safetymetaltesting.
Other, cheaper basemetal daisy spacers may not be made to the same exacting standards as Tieracast products.

Testing costs us $27 for each product we test. Questionable products continue on the market because not every seller tests every product. Most don't test any.

Black and white answers are hard to give in this area.

[Polly]

While Russ was typing that, I was typing this.  So although I've duplicated some info I'll go ahead and post it.

Regarding daisy beads:
Tierracast is always reliable. Consistent size/shape/materials/quality. They aren't cheap, but neither are they crazy expensive, and they are always good.  (Tierracast Daisy beads)

Plus - we do test our imported zinc-alloy daisy beads. We DID have to refuse a batch a few years ago, but once they knew we were particular about the materials, the vendor has kept their alloy clean.  (At that time, a lot of metals had been slowly creeping up in price, and they cut corners to keep the same price. We had to raise the price to keep the correct alloy, but they are still excellently-priced options, just no longer dirt cheap.)


The price of sterling does make it painful right now.  It just about kills me that some plain little disk blanks around the size of a quarter are $7 - $15 EACH, and that a 6x1.5" strip of 24g silver is $50, but a 6x6" piece of copper is $9 (which is still half-again what it was a few years ago).  But copper isn't silver color =( , aluminum isn't popular for jewelry and doesn't take antiquing well, and nickel can't be used in Europe (plus it's a common metal allergy here too).

[Luann Udell]

Hats off to both of you, Polly & Russ, for the in-depth answers and descriptions.  Yikes, I saw the 'metal colors' link & didn't think to check it out.  My bad!  You good!

It's good to know you're holding the line for quality and safety issues.  And thank you so much for sharing your knowledge & insights about what's going on in the industry. 

Gosh, I can hardly choose between the  banana rock,  the bow,  or the applause emoticons.  Too....many....choices!!   

[Russ Nobbs]

I confirmed with Joe that some Chinese HP and EP are very soft, made with dead soft brass wire. Some folks seem to like that because they are easier to bend while others understand that they will be too easy for the wearer to unintentionally bend them while wearing them.

[Luann Udell]

Russ, I forgot to ask, what is EP and HP?  I thought maybe EP was electro-plating, but all I can think of for HP is hydro-planing, which is just so wrong.   

[Polly]

oops, internal abbreviations!  Not as fancy as you're thinking, Luann:

EP = eye pins
HP = head pins

[Luann Udell]

Okay, now I'm trying to order stock for high school kids I'm working with.  Am I crazy?  Seems like all the base metal & plated brass head pins I'm seeing are now soft (as opposed to half-hard.)  I think soft is too hard too work with (bad pun).  If I'm trying to keep costs down, what are good choices, and do you have any head pins & eye pins that are half-hard??

[Polly]

Our ball-end head pins (#37-099-15) are tougher than most head pins, but I'm not sure about matching eye pins at the moment.

Our plated eye pins come in thin, standard and heavy thicknesses. Since you are looking for less-bendable, you will probably prefer the standard and heavy.  If your beads have a large enough hole, then you can get away with heavy. Personally, I prefer the standard weight eye pins, in any plating other than gunmetal.