automobile valve stems? and the casting of silver?

[Eric M Ericson]

Ok my middle son came up with a nest of valve stems and I was wondering, if anybody knew what steel they are? are they forgeable? can they be added to demascus?

next, I have a friend who has some scrap silver she is willing to trade
can I melt it and cast it into thicker stock for knife furnishings(or cast the furnishings themselves) how workable is it? I've cast aluminum and brass, but never worked with silver. (at six dollers an once the learning curve can get expencive)

 

[RHINOKNIVES]

eric, dont no about the valve stems but if you can cast brass you can work silver. its been about 25 years, i was in my teens, silver melts at about 1750 degrees if i remenber right. you could allso make throuts and tips for shealth by sweat or butt soldering silver. i keep threatening to do this myself but it has'nt happened yet.

 

[R Dannemann]

Eric, silver is easily cast. Flux with borax when molten, stir with a carbon rod to mix, melt in a crucible made of ceramic (both obtainable from a jewelry supply-not expensive), ox/act welding torch, reducing flame. Make a mold of sand, open on top if you want, better yet, buy investment mold material by the lb. (sort of a refractory plaster (just let it dry well, makes smooth castings) from jewelry supply or some rock shops. Your casting needs to be annealed by heating to almost cherry red, quench in dilute sulfuric acid which cleans it also or "sparex" (also from the same supply sources), water works but leaves the surface oxide. Silver work hardens, you can aneal/quench whenever, doesn't hurt a thing. The good thing about the learning curve is the silver really doesn't go anywhere and can be remelted & cast again unless heated to its vaporizing point. It looks real shiny and very liquid when stirred and at the right temp. to pour. Silver casts so well a finger print can be duplicated. Its really fun stuff to work with. Hope this helps.

 

[Peter Atwood]

Eric, In Alan Blade's video he shows how he uses a valve stem to mark the center line on his blade. He sharpens the edge of the round valve so that it resembles a cutoff wheel, then chucks it up in his drill press.

Next he takes his blade blank already profiled to shape and with the edge blackened with a magic marker and lays it on the drill press table. He cranks the table up so that the sharpened edge of the valve is roughly even with the center of the edge of his blank. Then he simply turns on the drill press and pushes the blade blank against the valve edge along where he will be grinding his blade edge. After scoring the edge he flips the blade over and repeats. In between the two resulting scratched lines is the true center of the blade blank and that's where he will grind to.

Hard to explain but easy to understand when seen visually.