Question:
Is there a way to tell the difference in silver tone beads and sterling silver beads that I erroneously mixed together?


Answer:
If you want to be certain of the metal content of your items, you can buy an electronic tester to tell you what the metal is. There are a few things that you can do to identify the type of metal that your beads are made from without paying for a tester. Probably the easiest test to see if an object is made from anything but iron or steel is to test it with a magnet. This will tell you if there is any steel in the object since metal containing iron will be attracted to the magnet.

Another test that you can do to determine if your item is solid metal or plated is to scratch the surface with a knife. If the item is plated you will see a different colored metal under the surface of the top layer. Sometimes the sub-layer will be nickel (sometimes called German silver) so it will have the silver color but it will have a slightly grey tint to it. At any rate you will see a difference between the surface and the sub-layer.

The weight of the object may give you a clue to the metal content. When you think of silver colored metals, you could be looking at solid Sterling Silver, plated Silver, Pewter, Rhodium, or Aluminum. Most of these metals have fairly distinctive differences in their weights. Pewter is usually the heaviest of the metals. Pewter used to be made primarily of lead but many of the new pewter alloys are lead free. Aluminum is the lightest of the silver metals and silver is somewhere in between. Sometimes you can feel the difference in weight between pieces of similar size and you will know that they are different metals.

Another clue to the type of metal that you are dealing with is the hardness of the material. Pewter is generally soft and with a sharp point, you can dig a chunk of it out of the surface. Aluminum is soft but tends to bend easily when pressed with a knife. Sterling is harder than the other two metals mentioned and not as easily marked with a knife.

With these tests and some experience you should be able to tell which of your pieces are solid silver or base metal. Sometimes it is not easy to tell and you may have to cut one of them apart to see if the piece is solid metal or plated. There are a lot of the common sterling findings being made from pewter these days so it is best to find a dealer that you feel that you can trust to purchase your sterling findings from. The cost of the pewter findings is about 1/3 of the sterling findings so if you see silver being sold very cheap, beware; it may not be sterling silver.