Thread: Another good wedge material

I've come across, what I believe will be, another good wedge material - pure .999 or .9999 silver.

Pure silver doesn't tarnish for the most part. Sterling, which is usually made with copper tarnishes because of the copper, not the silver.

The one ounce bars are 2mm thick. It is roughly the same hardness as lead. It is much less expensive than I realized. The price changes every day, though it is roughly $20 per oz if you pay with a credit card.

I can get about five wedges from an ounce. There is enough scrap to make another one, though silver has a very high melting point.

I'll be interested to see what you all have to say. Some of the more experienced may have great comments.

On a side note, I don't plan to use lead anymore. It is historically accurate, which is important for a lot of folks. I hope to be doing a lot of wedges and don't want to mess with precautions and cleanup from the dust when sanding it. As well, I'm starting a side business making custom scales and worry about prospective customers worrying about lead, even though they would be safe.

One small problem with this business is that I'm learning making scales properly sounds easier than it is. I'll get the quality where it needs to be, just taking a while.

Interestingly, you can't sell jewelry in California that has lead in it. While a straight isn't jewelry, I'll bet it falls under that regulation.

Have you checked into tungsten.?

I literally just started using this this week as well for a couple of restorations. Had some 2mm thick sheets left over from jewelry work in the past, and it works exceedingly well. it's a little harder than led, just FYI, but it's really easy to work with from start to finish. Good catch!

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.