Need some 3/4" thick Nickel Silver

On the Lively knifemaking video, Marianne made some coin silver with a touch of copper wire. Sprinkled on a bit of flux and, voom! Silver! Oh dang thats right, you said nickle silver... doh!

Hey I know Admiral has 201 nickle... maybe if you gave them a call?
 
Originally posted by Mark Williams
Anybody know of a good source? Thickest stuff I've seen is 3/8"

Thanks
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the last I got was from TKS
1/8" plate..and I have some .080 also
 
You may have to get your scraps together and smelt a quantity in the size you need. It is not very difficult to do.....

Doc
 
Mike Hull was cleaning out some NS a while back - had quite a stash, IIRC. Maybe he knows a good source.

The stuff is quite expensive lately...:(
 
Originally posted by pendentive
Mike Hull was cleaning out some NS a while back - had quite a stash, IIRC. Maybe he knows a good source.
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That was sold some time ago, and there was no 3/4" thick stuff.

If anyone has the book, "How To Make Folding Knives", by Centofante, etc., in the back, there is a list of suppliers, one of those is a manufacturer of Nickel Silver.

From what I understand, it's way cheaper from them, than most supply houses sell it. :confused: :eek:
 
Hadn't thought about smelting my own. That's a good idea. May as well cast the part I was going to grind while I'm at it. Oh great, now I need casting supplies.Aint it just grand?:D
 
If you find a foundry supply near by you could just purchase a German Silver melt ingot and saw it to what ever size you want. As to pins of the same material I just saw off a small piece and silver braze it to a short piece of steel rod as a holder then using a mill or a lathe turn it to size.
 
Sheffields in central Fla has lots of sizes of nickle silver, with high nickle content so it doesnt turn yellow with age, that is a big problem with a lot of that stuff.........dont know if they ever got a web site but they are listed in the Knives Annual etc.
 
E-mail sent Alan,

Hey Bill I only need a piece 1 1/4 inch long.

Thanks for the info Tom. So what percentage of siver is the good stuff 18% ?

I wonder if the percentages are weight or volume?

This could be fun:D
 
Thats alright Bill,

I'm going to forgo the machining and just cast what I need. Sounds more fun than grinding it anyway:D I appreciate it though.
 
Alan & Mark - I am unfamiliar with casting NS (but very interested), so if you don't mind, could you post your results when finished?
 
Here is what I have done in casting so far (unfortunately no pics). Aluminum and brass can be melted down in a very simple home made furnace that runs on charcoal, and a blow dryer (no kidding).

You need a 5 gallon steel pail, some play sand, and fireclay (available from grainger as furnace liner refractory in dry powder form). The rest is easy and with a nights fire run inside it will bake to a relatively hard (fire brick hard) liner.

I made a crucible from a 4 inch diameter steel pipe, and it works great. I just fill the thing up with whatever scrap I am going to melt, and fill the rest of the furnace with charcoal and light it off. Takes about 15 minutes to melt 5 to 6 pounds of aluminum, and brass takes a bit longer.

There are many good, cheap books on the subject, and all are worth more than the info you get from them. I got mine along wiht alot more from Lindsaybks.com and am about to get one on a propane fired forge for about 10 bucks I think.

I bought into the whole thing for my motorcycles, but I have thought of alot more uses for the furnace with the knife making. I have thought about ornate bolsters and gaurds, and this would be one way to accomplish all of that without a ton of work.

If you would like more info from me you can email me at dns@knology.net.

Doc
 
Mark, Bruce Evans is starting to cast his own N/S. I know he had to come up with a new burner to get the heat to puddle it. It melts at a higher temp....
 
Wasn't the guard on his latest little bowie cast Nickel silver? I would guess if my forge gets hot enough to weld it should be hot enoughj to cast I hope. If not I know my coake forge will puddle steel if I dont pay attention so it will work.
 
Doc - email sent. Thanks!

I never thought of casting brass or nickel silver. I knew you can cast bronze, tin, etc.

Learn something new every day...
 
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