Thread: Nickel silver wedge

I just bought some nickel silver %18 to make some wedges out of!!! I was curious if anyone else had any experience working with the material especially as a wedge material? Also curious about the %18??

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Is this a sheet ???
Do you have a Pic or Link ??

I have done some in Pure 99.99% silver in the past

18% silver maybe
Have it for liners but only 0.5mm thick and pins but nothing thick enough to wedge or grind

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Is this a sheet ???
Do you have a Pic or Link ??

I have done some in Pure 99.99% silver in the past

I was thinking about silver but shied away due to cost. I'm getting the nickel silver from http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?id=904&step=2. Some nice 1/8th bar stock cut to custom dimensions as a lead replacement.

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You are correct when you say 18% Nickel Silver. I used to make ferrules for my fly rods out of NS. It turns pretty well with sharp tools and will take a very high polish. You should have no problem making a wedge from this material depending on the thickness you purchased.

Unless stated otherwise, "nickel silver" is simply white brass. Brass with nickel added, usual composition is 60% copper, 20% nickel, 20% zink. Some years ago someone was gripping about getting nickel silver with a yellow sheen to it, apparently it had too low a nickel content to be "silver". I used to use a lot of it, but have switched to 416 stainless for silver colored guards, and bronze for brass colored. Still have some and still use it on occasion. It works easily, like brass, and will have a silver sheen to it compared to stainless's hue. It will tarnish, but not as quick or as bad as brass, and when it does tarnish it kinda sorta looks like silver.

I wish there was a good name for this particular alloy. It started out being called German Silver, which was of course a misnomer: there was no silver in it. It's really a modern (1840s) formulation of an alloy called Paktong that was originally made in the far east from naturally occurring ores of copper, nickel and zinc. It was harder than copper and near enough to the colour of silver to make it suitable for flat ware, with or without silver electroplating. It's a bit out of favour these days as silver plate is not used so much for table ware, 18/10 stainless having largely taken its place. The higher end flat ware is still made of Sterling silver however.