# Silver candleholder, real silver or what??



## archeonist (Jun 23, 2015)

Guys, I can buy this item from a website, but I am not sure about the silver content. This candleholder weighs about 135g and on the bottom there is a stamp wich says: sterling duchin creation weighted, and two little stamps I can't read, probably 925
Does anyone know if items like this are fully sterling silver or are they made out of a base using other materials?


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## patnor1011 (Jun 23, 2015)

Weighted is your hint.
That mean there is something inside to make it weight more.
Sterling silver on that kind of candle holder will be about 20g. Pretty much what you see is thin sheet of sterling over another material.


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## GotTheBug (Jun 23, 2015)

Exactly what Patnor said. Looks impressive until you tear into it and find it's mostly filler, usually beeswax in the bottom and a sort of epoxy in the top. At current prices 10 bucks would lose money to process.


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## ssabovic (Jun 23, 2015)

Beeswax and steel wire are inside , steel wire is used to make stronger candlholder.sometime insted beeswax is gipsum and on it is thin leyer of sterling silver.


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## archeonist (Jun 23, 2015)

Guys, thanks so much! Very usefull information! Partnor, finally I know what they mean by the word "weighted", so they just added some weight, I was afraid they did. Glad I asked you guys! 8)


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## goldsilverpro (Jun 23, 2015)

archeonist said:


> Guys, thanks so much! Very usefull information! Partnor, finally I know what they mean by the word "weighted", so they just added some weight, I was afraid they did. Glad I asked you guys! 8)


Resin is often used for weighting holloware, like your candle holder, and I also seem to recall some plaster-of-Paris type stuff being used. The sterling is in the form of a heavy foil that is shaped and decorated with forming tools and equipment. It's fairly rigid and it's thick enough to cut you badly. I would imagine that a variety of foil thickness are used and that the thickness is determined by the particular piece and by the manufacturer. If memory serves me, the foil on sterling knife handles averages about 1/2 oz each.

In 1970, I bought 2 almost identical candle holders (both in shape and size) as yours as a wedding gift. I bought them new from a jewelry store and paid $35 for the 2. Silver was about $1.75 per oz back then. If the candle holders retailed at 10 times their silver value (a total guess, but reasonable, I think) back then, there would be about 1 oz of silver on one of them

Has anyone ever measured the thickness of sterling foil?


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## rickbb (Jun 24, 2015)

goldsilverpro said:


> In 1970, I bought 2 almost identical candle holders (both in shape and size) as yours as a wedding gift. I bought them new from a jewelry store and paid $35 for the 2. Silver was about $1.75 per oz back then. If the candle holders retailed at 10 times their silver value (a total guess, but reasonable, I think) back then, there would be about 1 oz of silver on one of them



A 10x mark up is typical for jewelry retailer, maybe even a bit on the low side from my experience. Back in the 70's I used to sell southwest silver and turquoise jewelry part time. I'd buy it direct from a wholesaler and paid by the weight in silver, (that's how she bought it). If I didn't mark it up at least 10 to 15 times what I paid for it, no one would buy it. They didn't think it was real. I felt bad about it, thought I was ripping people off, but it didn't sell at only 5 times my cost.


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## kurtak (Jun 24, 2015)

goldsilverpro said:


> Has anyone ever measured the thickness of sterling foil?



I have never actually "measured" the thickness - but I have done my fair share of candle holders - I have seen the foil as thin as about the thickness of 3 x aluminum foil & as thick as about 6 X aluminum foil

Some can just be crumpled up in your hand (to better fit a crucible for melting) some you need to hammer down to size after making a fold or two

Kurt


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## solar_plasma (Jun 24, 2015)

Foils (80% Ag) from the handles of 12 pieces small forks and knives weighed about 40g. They have been filled with bee wax and sand.


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## vyper (Jun 25, 2015)

I've broke open a few different types of sterling weighted candlesticks. All the ones I've done have been pretty near to 10% of the weight is sterling the other 90 is junk. So ((weight of candlestick in grams/10) X .925) X $.51(gram of silver value) to get your approximate total silver value. Useful at yard sales/swap meets if your have a scale handy. Then of course you offer him less :twisted:


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## Shark (Mar 27, 2016)

For pictures in first post the foil averages between .065 and .075. I measured pieces of foil from a set of salt and pepper shakers with the exact same markings. I should have kept a picture of them, but I would have never guessed it would pop up on the forum a day after I acquired mine. The total weight was 15.3 grams of foil from both pieces, which were only 2.75 inches high and 1 1/2 to 1 5/8 in diameter at the widest point. I still made out fair at both pieces for $1.


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## Shark (Mar 27, 2016)

Here is a picture of what was under the silver foil. Both are broken across with the wide area, I just sit the top back on the bottom half.


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## scrappappy (Mar 27, 2016)

I have a very similar weighted candle from that same company from the OP. One of them broke recently and was disappointing to see how little silver is used.. it was solid plaster underneath with a very thin silver foil covering the surface. Total weight was 167 grams and only had 18 grams of sterling after the other junk was removed.. about 10% silver like others have mentioned.


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## nickvc (Mar 28, 2016)

When I worked for JM many years ago we supplied the silver to one of the largest producers of these sort of items by the bucket load, if I remember correctly it was 4 to 7 thou thick with some a little thicker, the company still exists and are called Broadway's in Birmingham, you can probably get the new price from the website not sure if you would get the silver content though.
The point to remember about any silver jewellery or silverware is the cost apart from the metal is the same as in gold to manufacture it, if you have a cheap labour base those costs are kept down which is why so many Northern European and North American jewellery manufacturers have closed down or moved their manufacturing bases to Asia where labour even skilled labour is cheap.


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## scrappappy (May 26, 2016)

I ran into another weighted candle recently and took some pictures of how thin the silver is for these things. The silver weighted name for them can be really misleading.. hope this is helpful to perspective buyers.


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