What metal are the bolsters made of?

A

AlinCT

Joined
May 7, 2014
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Starting to lightly file down the proud bolsters on my m43. Surprised at how easily the metal is filing away. Light test on the chiruwa says its a not the same.
 
could be eastern silver or german silver?? there is a softer white metal that they use sometimes instead of steel, but I am not sure of specifics
 
Bolster, bolster??? that's on the front right?

That is generally not very thick and not conducive to a lot of material removal.

I think I'd be tempted to carefully peen it down at the edge where it meets the wood. Judicious application of a punch and hammer. Never tried it so I can't say for certain if it would work.

Filing it down will produce a knife edge where it meets the wood which would not be a good thing I don't think.
 
bawana- I've just been using a needle file on the edges of the metal- taking the edge off, not so much filing it down.
 
The "white metal" bolsters are nickel silver and contain no elemental silver. It just looks like silver and patinas like silver but if you taste it it dont taste like silver so it aint silver. The yellow ones are brass of course. They look like brass feel like brass and taste like brass so they are brass;) Real silver is used on the Kothimodas when the description identifies it as such. I believe there may have been some older special models that used some real elemental silver but I havent actually tested them so I dont know for sure.
 
What's silver taste like, I've tasted a sliver before but never silver. I knew licking that cedar fence was a bad idea at the time but I was in an altered state of mind brought on by an overdose of I believe Annie Greensprings. Bad stuff that Annie Greensprings.

I will not travel that path again let me tell ya.
 
Bawanna said:
What's silver taste like, I've tasted a sliver before but never silver. I knew licking that cedar fence was a bad idea at the time but I was in an altered state of mind brought on by an overdose of I believe Annie Greensprings. Bad stuff that Annie Greensprings.

I will not travel that path again let me tell ya.
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OWW NO! Dont do that! Fortunately Annie ceased to be in the mid seventies unless you picked up a bottle whilst visiting California. Stick with Boones Farm or Mad Dog 20/20. Wheres that Barf icon thingy??? Oh there it is. :barf::barf::barf: on all accounts.
 
I mostly finished filing them down. Since it's soft, didn't take much time. For the chiruwa, I ended up just taking some epoxy and filling in the gap. I'll sand that down later.
 
AlinCT said:
Starting to lightly file down the proud bolsters on my m43. Surprised at how easily the metal is filing away. Light test on the chiruwa says its a not the same.
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Nickel silver and brass are by far the most common bolster and buttcap metals. However, occasionally we get steel bolsters and buttcaps. You can use a magnet to tell which ones are steel.

Certain HI models seem to use steel more often than others, but in no model is the steel bolster/buttcap dominant.
 
Yeah AlinCT, the Chiruwa is going to be a lot tougher to work. It is the same steel as the blade. The bolsters are made of as NDog mentioned what Auntie calls white metal which is in technical terms German silver or nickel silver though the name is misleading since there is no "actual" silver, but is usually an alloy of about 60 per cent copper, 20 per cent nickel and 20 per cent zinc.
 
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