Hello all,
Could anyone tell me what this means? 800 over 500. It is stamped on both the item and it's handle?
Per usual thank you for any education you may share with me.
CHEERS!!
As others have said it looks like 800 (80%) silver to me
Where sterling is 925 silver or 92.5%, this should be 800 silver, or 80% silver. It can be ran as typical sterling.
He is also correct that it can be run as sterling, if that is the route you are headed.
Sterling (925 silver) can be run "direct" in a silver cell - it will just corrupt the electrolyte with copper sooner then with cement silver anodes - which only means you ether need to change out the electrolyte sooner -
OR - start with
MORE dissolved silver ions in the electrolyte so that it takes longer to "up set" the balance between the silver ions in the electrolyte & the copper ions in the electrolyte
In other words - copper "co-depositing" at the cathode in the cell does not start to happen until the balance between the silver ions in the electrolyte & the copper ions in the electrolyte get up set
So (as an example) say you are running cement silver anodes (which should be "about" 985 silver
or better) & say you make your electrolyte with 100 - 125 grams dissolved silver per liter of electrolyte - you can run those cement silver anodes "relatively" longer then running 925 (sterling) anodes because the higher copper in the 925 will up set the silver/copper balance quicker then the 985 (plus) cement silver anodes
However - if you up the amount of dissolved silver in the electrolyte from 100 -125 grams per liter - to say 250 - 300 grams per liter you can run 925 (sterling) anodes longer because the electrolyte can "take on" more copper ions before upsetting the silver/copper balance in the electrolyte
With 800 silver - the copper content is so much higher then 925 that in order to (effectively) run it direct in a cell you would have to have
A LOT of silver dissolved in your electrolyte &/or change the electrolyte out
VERY often
You are better served to dissolve the 800 & then cement the silver out of the silver(copper) nitrate & pour cement silver anodes
My point is that you can run 925 silver direct in a cell - not so much true with 800 silver
For what it is worth
Kurt