Grand Central Silver Shop is Australia

Hi,

A year ago, I ordered a couple sterling silver gemstone rings online
from the "Grand Central Silver Shop" store, based in Toowoomba,
Australia.
The prices were nice and the designs were exactly what I was looking
for.
I got one for myself and a matching one for my mom.
Anyways, within just a few weeks, the sterling silver ring bands
started to develop a rusty like wearing on them. Not really rust, but
a sulphury smelling browning all over it. what could be causing this?
and are these made from pure .925 silver or some other type of alloy
metal mixed in that might be causing this? i also have some skin
problems and was just curious as to what it was other than that.

The markings are very hard to read on the inside of the band... but I
think it says .925, but also says some other stuff. It's so small, I
cannot tell.
I am assuming it's got something to do with it being from another
country.
Either way, on their site (which is currently down due to re-design or
something) they claim it is sterling silver, but of all the sterling
silver rings I have (and I have a lot) I have never had one discolor
and smell like that. Except for, of course.. costume-ish cheap jewelry
I may have gotten which are not made from silver, gold or anything
like that (which I usually have skin reactions to).

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks again,

Porks

Actually, depending on the lighting, it looks as if there's gold
trying to seep through the silver. And on the inside a rusty kind of
wear. But it's nuts... I only wore it a few times and this started to
develop really super quick!
I never wore them in any weird chemicals or anything like that, or
water.

On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 19:06:28 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry
(porkchops) wrote:

Actually, depending on the lighting, it looks as if there's gold
trying to seep through the silver. And on the inside a rusty kind of
wear. But it's nuts... I only wore it a few times and this started to
develop really super quick!
I never wore them in any weird chemicals or anything like that, or
water.

Her'es one possiblity. A lot of fairly mass produced jewelry is at least
partially finished with the aid of vibratory or other forms of tumbling, using
steel shot as a burnishing medium. This is a great way to brighten and clean
up the insides and find details that are more work, or even very difficult, to
hand polish. Sometimes, a small bit of the steel shot can get lodged up
inside the backside of a ring, usually in some hard to get to, and hard to see
place. It then, over time, can begin to rust, and the rust can get all over
the gold or silver too. This same thing can happen if, in manufacturing, a
steel tool such as a drill bit was broken off in the gold or silver, such as
when drilling holes for setting stones or otherwise cleaning up a casting,
which then also puts a piece of steel in contact with the gold or silver, and
exposed to the outside, where it then can also start to corrode or rust. And
the same thing can happen, though it's rare, if the manufacturer accidentally
got some bits of iron or steel mixed with the gold when they melted it to cast.
This generally happens only when small manufacturers are recycling their scrap
gold, and get careless enough with the scraps from the workbenches that somehow
a bit of sawblade or drill bit, etc, gets included by mistake. Anyway, my
guess is that via one of these three means, some bit of iron or steel is
imbedded or stuck in your ring. Might be small and hard to find. Beyond just
the bit of steel rusting, the contact with the precious metal sets up an
electrolytic cell, and the slight voltage produced can then discolor the
precious metal, especially silver, as well as helping the rust itself to spread
out a bit and coat the precious metal. it's not a strongly adherant coating,
but still strong enough it doesn't just rinse off. Usually what's needed is to
carefully examine the ring, especially the inside, with a good magnifier and
find the offending bit of foreign metal, and remove it. if it's actually
imbedded in, such as that broken drill bit, or a bit of cast in scrap, it might
need to be removed with an acid bath (soaking it for a while in freshly mixed
sparex type pickle will do it). Once the foreign metal is removed, cleaning up
the ring will restore it's appearance, and if the foreign metal is completely
gone, the problem won't reoccur.

The above is just a guess as to what's happening, as of course I can't see it
and be sure. But it sounds rather like what I've seen happen when a bit of
tumbling shot gets stuck up inside a setting... Often, the corrosion and
staining takes long enough to happen that a ring could easily be finished and
out of the shop before it becomes apparent that there is a problem.

Hope that helps. (and I hope i'm right, since that would then be an easy fix.)

Cheers

Peter

I just found out that my mom has since bought 3 more rings from this
shop and they have also "rusted".

Wearing them now leaves a greenish/blue spot on the finger, like
wearing fake costume jewelry might make. Maybe it's a crappy kind of
coating used?

Too many rings to be having this problem to be the original theory.

I also read some reviews on a message board and found that others have
gotten rings and bracelets from this place with the same problems.

It'll develop on them almost within days.

Sounds like they need to change a metal mix in there or something.

On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 07:06:30 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry
(porkchops) wrote:

I just found out that my mom has since bought 3 more rings from this
shop and they have also "rusted".

Wearing them now leaves a greenish/blue spot on the finger, like
wearing fake costume jewelry might make. Maybe it's a crappy kind of
coating used?

Too many rings to be having this problem to be the original theory.

I also read some reviews on a message board and found that others have
gotten rings and bracelets from this place with the same problems.

It'll develop on them almost within days.

Sounds like they need to change a metal mix in there or something.

Well,
I suggested this before, and now I'll STRONGLY suggest it.

This is one place where dinking around wondering what's going on via internet
newsgroups and message boards is useless.

Quit messing around, and just take the ring to any decent jeweler, who should
be able to quickly examine the ring, and perhaps test the metal, and come up
with a real answer based on the ring itself. That is REAL data. Dong it via
internet postings may be a feelgood experience, but it's just guessing, even
when those of us who are guessing are experts.

If you don't know where to take it, or have nobody close by, contact me via
email about how to put the ring in the mail and send it to me. I'll have you
enclose return postage as well. I'll be happy to check it out for you.

And of course the other suggestion is even more conventional and simple. Why
complain to us. Have you tried to contact the company itself? Here on the
net, you're only fooling with theories and conjectures and mysteries. Perhaps
contacting the real source of the problem would have been more productive. If
nothing else, if it seems the company has a problem, perhaps they don't even
know it. It might be a kindness of you to give them a clue...

And if that doesn't work, there are a great many other places to buy silver
jewelry at good prices. If you and your mom keep buying junk from a place,
even after figuring out there is a problem, then you've really only got
yourselves to blame, y'know...

cheers

Peter