Thread: Another good wedge material

Good idea on Tungsten. I just looked it up. The big down side is that it is very, very hard. Having said that, there are really cool applications that would be good marketing for those having a straight razor related business. One day I may pony up the money to get a mould made.

There are companies whose business model is to cast most any metal you want, you just pay for the mould.

Interesting comment from Butzy on the hardness. I checked a metal hardness measurement table and it shows pure silver as being very slightly softer than lead. Having said that, my practical experience has been that it is harder. Like he said, it's still easy to work with, though not as easy lead.

Originally Posted by Pete123

Interesting comment from Butzy on the hardness. I checked a metal hardness measurement table and it shows pure silver as being very slightly softer than lead. Having said that, my practical experience has been that it is harder. Like he said, it's still easy to work with, though not as easy lead.

This I did not know. I should have clarified when saying that I was referring to actually working the material, not the by-the-book definition of "hardness". That's my mistake...
In general I have found .999 silver takes longer/more effort to cut, grind, and sand/polish than lead (all else being equal) - so that's mostly what I was referring to. I liken it to a softer copper in terms of work-ability.
It's also a whole lot prettier than lead over time, and people tend to like hearing that their razor has a pure silver wedge more than a pure lead wedge

Originally Posted by Pete123

Good idea on Tungsten. I just looked it up. The big down side is that it is very, very hard. Having said that, there are really cool applications that would be good marketing for those having a straight razor related business. One day I may pony up the money to get a mould made.

There are companies whose business model is to cast most any metal you want, you just pay for the mould.

Interesting comment from Butzy on the hardness. I checked a metal hardness measurement table and it shows pure silver as being very slightly softer than lead. Having said that, my practical experience has been that it is harder. Like he said, it's still easy to work with, though not as easy lead.

You can add a bit of antimony (tin) to lead to make it harder. I prefer bullet lead that I make myself, it shines up nice, and stays that way a lot longer than pure lead.

Originally Posted by outback

I prefer bullet lead that I make myself, it shines up nice, and stays that way a lot longer than pure lead.

Good idea, it looks really nice! is that lead encased in brass, or is that an optical illusion? If it holds a shine well, that's a heck of a nice-looking wedge.

Now that I think back to jewelry-making, annealed silver was very soft (especially after soldering, etc). So upon reflection it's not that surprising that pure silver is as soft as lead in some cases.
Used to use a bead blaster to harden it up in order to work with after soldering. the difference between annealed pure silver and "hardened" silver in terms of harness is substantial

Originally Posted by Butzy

Good idea, it looks really nice! is that lead encased in brass, or is that an optical illusion? If it holds a shine well, that's a heck of a nice-looking wedge.

Now that I think back to jewelry-making, annealed silver was very soft (especially after soldering, etc). So upon reflection it's not that surprising that pure silver is as soft as lead in some cases.
Used to use a bead blaster to harden it up in order to work with after soldering. the difference between annealed pure silver and "hardened" silver in terms of harness is substantial

Yes, .003 brass sheet, one on each side.
It was a scale job I did for Sharptons, Henckels. Thanks.

Butzy, In my comment about the hardness scale I was agreeing with you. It was harder to work with than lead. I think you hit the nail on the head in your comment that the hardness scale doesn't directly equate to actually working with the material.

Another possibility to explore-thanks Pete. Does anybody else use aluminum? I've been using aluminum scraps for wedges on black horn, ebony and the like. It polishes up mirror bright like silver, is easy to work, and if you scrounge around for scraps, old flanges and the like, it's free! Only downside I guess is that it doesn't have the sex appeal of actual silver.

anyone try using stainless steel as a wedge material? i have some scrap pieces from a buddy's shop but i havent tried messing around with it yet.

I've thought about aluminum. Does it look good over time?

Regarding stainless steel, I have no doubt that it would work well. The question would be how hard it is to work with.

Also, as someone mentioned, lead is the perfect balancer

I got some more information on the hardness scale. In short, I made an error. Lead is 1.5 and silver is 2.5. Sterling silver would be harder.

I've gotten to the age where I have to outsmart problems rather than man handle them. I use bolt cutters on 2mm pure silver to avoid injury, which wouldn't be needed on lead.

The Mohs Scale of Hardness for Metals

Here is a list of the hardness grades for some of the metals that you are most likely to come across in your everyday life, especially when dealing with jewelry:

Lead: 1.5
Tin: 1.5
Zinc: 2.5
Gold: 2.5-3
Silver: 2.5-3
Aluminum: 2.5-3
Copper: 3
Brass: 3
Bronze: 3
Nickel: 4
Platinum: 4-4.5
Steel: 4-4.5
Iron: 4.5
Palladium: 4.75
Rhodium: 6
Titanium: 6
Hardened steel: 7-8
Tungsten: 7.5
Tungsten carbide: 8.5-9

Originally Posted by Pete123

Butzy, In my comment about the hardness scale I was agreeing with you. It was harder to work with than lead.

Yep i know I was just commenting further to clarify for anyone else reading who may be interested in using the material and seeing conflicting info elsewhere