Making sheet silver

[A.McPherson]

Hey Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith

I've got some lumps of silver that I was in planning on making into sheet to use on a sgian dubh.

Any Tips to getting an even sheet, beyond go slow, anneal often, and use a press mill (which I don't have)?

Or buying some, I want to use what I've got for sentimental reasons.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

You need to use a rolling mill to make sheet silver.

 

[Horsewright]

How is the targe going?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

You need a rolling mill to do it right. I still have the two spare brand-new ones we talked about when you were over this way a couple years ago. Like I said back then, shipping would not be cheap. I might investigate disassembly and fitting one in a flat-rate box. Send me an email on that.

Here's the how-to:
You need to melt the silver cleanly and pour it into a mold that makes a flat billet. An electric melting pot and sheet mold are the best choices, but you can use a torch if needed. You have to flux the silver well with borax/boric acid casting flux.
Then you anneal the bar and start rolling it out. You have to re-anneal often. You need to pickle the silver regularly as you work on it also, or you will press in the impurities.

You can also do it for a small project by hand with a flat faced hammer and a smooth faced anvil or bench block. It isn't a smashing contest, so use an appropriate size hammer and work slowly and evenly. Anneal often. You finish up with a planishing hammer.
The surface will need filing and sanding when done, but the equipment is much less.

How big a sheet are you making? Down in Texas you should easily find a silversmith that would melt and roll out the silver for you.

 

[A.McPherson]

You need a rolling mill to do it right. I still have the two spare brand-new ones we talked about when you were over this way a couple years ago. Like I said back then, shipping would not be cheap. I might investigate disassembly and fitting one in a flat-rate box. Send me an email on that.

Here's the how-to:
You need to melt the silver cleanly and pour it into a mold that makes a flat billet. An electric melting pot and sheet mold are the best choices, but you can use a torch if needed. You have to flux the silver well with borax/boric acid casting flux.
Then you anneal the bar and start rolling it out. You have to re-anneal often. You need to pickle the silver regularly as you work on it also, or you will press in the impurities.

You can also do it for a small project by hand with a flat faced hammer and a smooth faced anvil or bench block. It isn't a smashing contest, so use an appropriate size hammer and work slowly and evenly. Anneal often. You finish up with a planishing hammer.
The surface will need filing and sanding when done, but the equipment is much less.

How big a sheet are you making? Down in Texas you should easily find a silversmith that would melt and roll out the silver for you.

Two small projects, one I need a spacer between the sheath and handle of a Sigan Dubh. I lost about a 16th inch after a misalignment during glue-up.

The other project is a tanto I'm making for a friend of mine. His son just went into the S. Korean army, so I'm making a life for him. I want to inlay a silver name plate into the spine of the knife. My friend is a Jeweler but trade, and the silver is from one of the projects I did in his shop when his son was in grade school, so I thought it would be cool to have it go full circle back to his son, ya know?

Anyway, ill send you a PM Stacy, I can't find your email address.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Message received. We'll work it out.