My sterling silver PF Mini Cups from RnT II arrived in Friday's mail. These are really nice cups! Don has done a very good job with these.

When Jake was producing cups for RnT II, he usually did a very fine job. He left some very large shoes to fill.

If the rest of the products from "the new" RnT II are on a par with these cups, Don has nothing to worry about. He has filled the shoes nicely.

We had an open house at the Cups and Balls Museum yesterday and today. I did a presentation about the various versions of the Paul Fox cups. These new sterling silver cups were featured in the presentation. All who saw these cups really liked them. They remarked on how nice they look and feel.

I'll be ordering the copper combo cups as soon as they are available.

Good work!

I can see why you are so pleased with those cups, Bill. I think argentium silver was a very wise choice too.

Is argentium silver essentially 'stainless silver'? Does it tarnish at all?

I don't know. I'll let Donald answer that one.

Posted: Nov 10, 2009 11:41pm
I did some very deep, secret research on argentium silver. Okay, I Googled it.

I learned that it contains germanium, which acts to prevent tarnishing. It has other good characteristics, as well.

This is a very wise choice on the part of Donald.

I may be wrong, but I think these may be the first cups ever produced commercially in argentium silver.

Well, I don't know if it's the first cups ever produced commercially in Argentium® Sterling Silver, but that is very likely. My sales rep for the metal stated he had never heard of the metal being used for what I was using it for. The choice was actually one of convenience for me. When I went shopping for machinable sterling silver discs, my search eventually lead me to the sole North American manufacturer of Argentium® Sterling Silver. The characteristics of it sounded intriguing enough to try it. It doesn't anneal like ordinary sterling silver, and it took some trial and error to get it right - ruined 6 cups in the process, but the cups were hardened in an ordinary kitchen stove, and I thought that was pretty cool...

Bill is correct that the primary additive to Argentium® Sterling Silver is germanium, and that change to ordinary sterling silver is what produces the anti-tarnish and bright white properties:
"Argentium® Sterling Silver is a patented and trademarked alloy that is at least 92.5% pure silver, just like traditional sterling silver. What makes it different from traditional sterling silver is that a small amount of germanium replaces some of the copper that is usually the other 7.5% of sterling silver. Peter Johns, a professor of silversmithing at Middlesex University in England, invented
Argentium® Sterling Silver in 1996." - Cynthia Eid and Society of North American Goldsmiths

Richard, I would not call it "stainless silver", as it will eventually show tarnish, but it takes a very long time for that to happen. In accelerated tarnishing laboratory tests, the results are quite amazing. Ordinary sterling silver is FULLY tarnished with hues of blue, yellow and purple while Argentium® Sterling Silver is still white and looks new.
I'm no chemist, but anything I need to polish LESS is OK by me!

As a matter of course, I always put silver or silver plated cups into plastic boxes that keep the amount of tarnish to a minimum. I'll leave these in the bag and give a progress report!

The air in Houston is really tough on silver.

Thanks both - Bill and Don. I Wikipedia'd argentium silver, but didn't get as much info as you've both provided.

Don - That's an interesting story about how you came to choose argentium. I've tended to store silver and plated cups wrapped in acid-free tissue paper in a plastic food bag. It's worked so far. I've found that some bags supplied with cups can tarnish the metal if stored in them for some time.

Leather bags can be especially problematic because of the acids used in some tanning procedures. This is also true of certain papers.

Are there any videos on DVD or YouTube which show a performance of a mini cup and ball routine?

I've seen them used like shell for the "Three Shell Game", but are there any videos which show a performance of Milt Kort's effect or other cups and balls effects?

I don't know. These would really be too big for a shell game routine.