Silver sheet for mokume

R

redneckswami

Joined
Mar 31, 2008
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I'm going to begin making mokume gane in the next few weeks, but I need a source for sterling or fine silver sheet. I've found a couple of sites, but they don't sell retail, and I don't have a tax ID. Can anybody suggest a good source or 2? If worse comes to worst, I could make my own ingots and roll sheet out of them, I just would rather use sheet stock to begin with. Thanks!
 
This is one of those good places to point out that filling out your profile is important. There might be several folks who would order it for you from the wholesalers, but they don't know where you are or anything about you.

Rio Grande is a good source for the hobby jewelers. A metals supplier like Hoover and Strong is another possible source (I can't remember if they are selling to the public or not now?)

Stick with fine silver for mokume. The eutectic joints are more predictable. The simplest starter billet is fine silver and pure copper sheets. Use 20 gauge sheet cut into 2" squares ( order it pre-cut to size). About ten pieces of each will make a big billet when hammered out.

The only other hint I can give you is that the torque plates can't be too heavy. Use 1/2" steel plates with 1/2" bolts.Use a piece of stainless HT foil on each end of the billet to prevent it from sticking to the plates.

Failure is common in the beginning, so read up well before experimenting with precious metals ( nickle silver can be used during the learning curve). Also don't throw the blob of melted copper and silver away if it goes south. It still can be sold to the refiners and have the payment made in new fine silver sheet.
Stacy
 
I've had good business with Hauser & Miller as well. My mother in law works at a jewelry store, and they actually work with Hauser & Miller as well, selling scrap, etc.

Just thought I'd throw in another option- If you'd like to do some pattern manipulation, but are concerned about getting a good fused lamination, you might consider starting out with a flat billet of mokume that's ready to go. You can get 'em from Shining Wave Metals in all sorts of alloys.
 
TB Hagstoz has all kinds of flat sheet in precut sizes. They are also a refiner and sell small quantitys.
 
hmmm wow i just tried to google it and some places i found are ripping people off. 1430 USD for a 6 in by 6 in by .25 in, and its a pound "shipping weight" so even if it was a full pound it would be around 300 usd for the metal alone (unless i missed silver jumping to like 85 usd per ounce).

found this http://www.ccsilver.com/silver/ssheet2.html but i dont know if you need to have a whole sale account or anything with them

-matt
 
redneckswami said:
I'm going to begin making mokume gane in the next few weeks, but I need a source for sterling or fine silver sheet. I've found a couple of sites, but they don't sell retail, and I don't have a tax ID. Can anybody suggest a good source or 2? If worse comes to worst, I could make my own ingots and roll sheet out of them, I just would rather use sheet stock to begin with. Thanks!
Click to expand...


Go on ebay and look for SCRAP + STERLING and SCRAP + SILVER.

You can pick up for lower than market value.

Remember that sterling is 8% copper. Weights should be in troy, but some people give the avoirdupois weight by mistake so a calculator is your friend.

Avoirdupois ounce = 28.35 grams
Troy ounce = 31.1 grams
Troy pound = 12 troy ounces = 373.2 grams
avoirdupois pound = 16 avoirdupois ounces = 453.6 grams

I would suggest looking for salt shakers, plates, platters, bowls, vases, candleholders and other items that are forged thinly and can be cut with snips.

Remember that wieghted items, including weighted silverware are SHEET items and often far cheaper than scrap because they are weighted.


ALSO... Sterling silver is a dream to forge.

Buy a 10oz bullion bar or coins and forge them flat..... You are going to be using a forge anyway to fuse the mokume right?
 
:D While I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments, take note of the conversions in Scrivner's post above. $1430 per troy pound would come out closer to $120 per troy ounce, or more like 6.7 times the current "market" price.
 
ya i know the conversions, i was just to lazy to do the math.

either way i think that piece of silver was stupidly over priced, im just going to hope i missed that it was in some random other currency that is worth like 15-20 us cents to that dollar.

im not surprised when i see 25 usd per troy ounce on formed wire, sheet, stock but when im looking at 100-150 ish, i would be assuming its made into either hand crafted ornamental stocks or already made into something to buy.

yay, now i get to deal with crazy prices now that im in to the metals program here, guess ill b using a lot of copper and aluminum for a while... gota find some grants
-matt
 
SR_matt said:
hmmm wow i just tried to google it and some places i found are ripping people off. 1430 USD for a 6 in by 6 in by .25 in, and its a pound "shipping weight" so even if it was a full pound it would be around 300 usd for the metal alone (unless i missed silver jumping to like 85 usd per ounce).

found this http://www.ccsilver.com/silver/ssheet2.html but i dont know if you need to have a whole sale account or anything with them

-matt
Click to expand...

I think what you missed, Matt, is how much silver is in that block. Perhaps I calculated incorrectly, but I come up with close to 50 troy oz.
 
well that is also possible, i didnt do any math for the size and just went on what was listed as the shipping weight (1 pound), which could very well be off. but even at that 1200 would be a more reasonable price for that much weight.

-matt
 
SR_matt said:
yay, now i get to deal with crazy prices now that im in to the metals program here, guess ill b using a lot of copper and aluminum for a while... gota find some grants
-matt
Click to expand...


Coin stores usually sell "scrap" silver bars and coins for just a few percentage points over spot value for 99.999% pure silver.

Go to your local coin store and pick up a few SCRAP one ounce rectangular bars and cold work them flat with a hammer. use them to stencil over and then cut an equal thickness of brass and/or copper sheet.

Silver can be rolled on a tabletop roller. Silver is easy easy to work with.
 
Scriven said:
Coin stores usually sell "scrap" silver bars and coins for just a few percentage points over spot value for 99.999% pure silver.

Go to your local coin store and pick up a few SCRAP one ounce rectangular bars and cold work them flat with a hammer. use them to stencil over and then cut an equal thickness of brass and/or copper sheet.

Silver can be rolled on a tabletop roller. Silver is easy easy to work with.
Click to expand...


and for mokume is it really important to make sure the metal you are using doesnt crack (like if you just over worked it before annealing sine you would probably want to roll out the silver)? the only issue i could see would be you may have a little weird line but just from the complexity of how it looks i wonder if it would be noticeable.

-matt
 
SR_matt said:
and for mokume is it really important to make sure the metal you are using doesnt crack (like if you just over worked it before annealing sine you would probably want to roll out the silver)? the only issue i could see would be you may have a little weird line but just from the complexity of how it looks i wonder if it would be noticeable.

-matt
Click to expand...

Perhaps the best way would be to by silverware plates or platters and snip them to shape. Candleholders and such are usually very thin sheets covering other materials.

My wife is the silver smith in the family. She would buy coins and would either cold hammer or roll them out cold most of the time. I have played with it a little and cannot imagine it cracking. Get a small bar or silver quarter or dime to play with and see.

Coin stores have many many shapes and thicknesses of silver to choose from.

I picked up a few pounds for casting, but I will be doing some hot forging with the 10 oz bars which are about the perfect thickness for guards already.

For mokume, I wonder how the addition of copper (sterling silver) affects the welding process. The wife says it should work just file although her mokume was from pure bullion.
 
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