Engraving on Stirling.

[Joe Hillmann]

I have a rush job here and need some help before I order the tags for it. I have a lady that wants me to engrave on a bunch of sterling silver tags. The problem is I have never engraved on sterling before and am not even sure what "sterling" is. I have however engrave on silver plated silverware and gotten nice dark marks. So I guess my question is, is there a difference between sterling silver and the silver used in silver plate?

[Mike Null]

Sterling silver is solid silver and very soft. You should be able to mark it with your YAG. The silver plate is probably about 1 mill thick on steel.

[matthew knott]

Sterling silver should mark fine, but i think you have a long lens so you might find it tricky, use a low speed and frequency, it creates lots of soot, if you wipe it back into the mark it makes it go dark, I normaly try to remove as much as i can with masking tape. Focus is critical, the silver is pretty good at reflecting the beam until it bites, so its hard to get a delicate mark, kind of all or nothing, and you will get yellow smoke! All the best

[Joe Hillmann]

Sterling silver should mark fine, but i think you have a long lens so you might find it tricky, use a low speed and frequency, it creates lots of soot, if you wipe it back into the mark it makes it go dark, I normaly try to remove as much as i can with masking tape. Focus is critical, the silver is pretty good at reflecting the beam until it bites, so its hard to get a delicate mark, kind of all or nothing, and you will get yellow smoke! All the best


Matt,
You are the guy I was waiting to hear from on that question, I knew you would have the answer for me.

[Dee Gallo]

Matt, I'm curious as to whether transfer tape masking will help with reflection and/or cleaning.

[matthew knott]

Matt, I'm curious as to whether transfer tape masking will help with reflection and/or cleaning.

Hi Dee, No is the quick answer, the wavelength is wrong and the laser wont go through that tape like a co2, you can use the laser to do a low power pass over the mark and that will clean up the engraving, then i just use sticky tape and go over and over the mark (like removing lint from cloth). To be honest a quick clean with silver polish gives a a good result, but it gives a dark mark and sometimes we are trying to give a drag engraved effect.