Printable View
So I bin watching utube videos on melting silver an making ingots an now I want to start. The only silver I have is silverware. American silver co. An rodger bros. Are these all silver an can be melted down I searched high an low an can't find an answer. I know sterling silver is all silver but what about these ones?
Not a good idea. Your gonna be taking something that is marked sterling and can be sold it as such and melting it into a bar that cant be sold till it is assayed. Sounds like a losing proposition to me. Unless the piece is hallmarked silver or sterling then its not. Rodgers is known for making silver plated items, go to any thrift store and look at the silver, 80% is rodgers.
Most silverware is silver plate, if it is pure silver it will be marked with a silver mark. The mark for sterling is 925, or another mark to look for would be a LION, there are other marks for silver but I don't know them right off hand.
Also the handles of the knives are filled with plaster or some other similar material and the metal covering them is very thin. Consider holding onto the sterling or selling it and buying silver coins or verifiable siver bulion. Mike.
Silverplate may have some decent scrap value if under the plating it is brass or copper. It could also be stainless steel under the plating but will probably be magnetic stainless. If you have silverplated spoons,forks and knives take a file to it or cut it in half and see what type of metal it is. You can pick up silverplated items on the cheap at yard sales and thrift stores as well. People do remove the slverplate form these items for the silver but there is such a small amount that it would cost more in time and labor for the small amt you would recover.
What your seeing from some silver plated flatware is not stainless steel, but nickel silver which by the way does not contain any silver as the name would imply.Quote:
Originally Posted by BRASSCATCHER
Nickel silver - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What is the point in melting sterling silver into a bar when you are not going to increase the value at all?
This is how I see it. If you are not willing to invest the time to learn, the effort, the energy, etc in first recovering the silver, then refining the silver before you cast it into a bar, what you are really doing is just spending extra money melting silver that is sterling, not 99.99 fine, into a bar but you will not get anymore from it.
If you want nice silver bars, watch on ebay. It's going to cost you between $35-$40 per ounce, but you will be getting fine silver, not sterling. In the long run you are going to end up paying less for the fine silver bullion, than you would if you spent the energy melting sterling silver. Also, if your silver is only 80%, and you want to sell it to a refiner later on, they are going to just have to re-melt it anyway to upgrade the silver content so it can be run as a silver proposition in a mobious or thum electrolytic cell. What is the point in the extra processing?
I have to admit there is something primal about pouring molten precious metal into an ingot mold. It's a beautiful thing, and I never ever get tired of pouring precious metals, not ever. But what you are proposing just amounts to wasting your time and money.
If you are serious about owning silver ingots, I can put you in touch with a personal friend who sells thousands of dollars worth of silver, on a weekly basis. He will treat you fairly and honestly and not hold you over a barrel. And if you are interested in melting your own silver, he has developed his own small jewelers melting furnace, and can supply you with that as well.
Or if you are interested in melting and pouring the silver yourself, I have about 300 ounces of silver shot that assays out at 99.998% silver, .002% copper, < .001 lead < .001 Nickel. I will sell you at $35.00 per ounce. Just let me know.
Scott
You guys are not reading the thread right, he did not say he's going to melt sterling, he is askig if silverware is solid silver. I agree with Gus some of the silverware I've come across the magnet does not stick and it does spark and it is too heavy to be aluminum, so I was thinking that it would be nickle.
Quote:
Originally Posted by happyscraper
Quote:
Originally Posted by Motörhead
I think you are right in that he is asking if it's solid silver, but he mentioned watching a youtube video about melting silver, I think he is asking about being solid silver, so that he can melt it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Motörhead
Maybe he can clarify, and if I read that totally wrong let me apologize ahead of time.
Scott
Ive had alot of good buys at thrift stores and such but you have to know what to look for and exactly what it is your looking at. As soon as i hear rodgers i know its silverplated from my bad experiences in the past. Oh well, live and learn. Just because something is called silverware does not mean theres any silver in it.
how about silver contacts anybody know what to do with them?
Untitled | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
find a buyer in the buyers section of the forumQuote:
Originally Posted by Starmex
The term "silverware" comes from back in the day when they made silverware out of silver because bactieria can not grow on silver. Today it is more comminly called flatware.
Thank you
Quote:
Originally Posted by happyscraper
Silverware can range from a candle stick holder, vase, tea pot, serving trays etc. etc., while flatware is eating utensils like a knife and fork only the formal set contains so much more variety it's enough to confuse a person which spoon to eat your soup or stir your coffee.
http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/...silverware.jpg
where do you find those kind of contacts ?Quote:
Originally Posted by Starmex
What is silver eleco_refining, did you mean electro-refining.Quote:
Originally Posted by 79corvett
Ammens book, Refining Precious Metals has a complete section on electro-refining gold and silver.
Also this topic has been covered in great detail over at the gold forum.
Silver from plated material can be removed with hot concentrated sulfuric acid, nasty, nasty stuff.
Sulfuric acid seeks out water, since the human body is mostly water any contact with hot or cold sulfuric acid cause severe burns as the acid seeks out the moisture in your body.
Best to sell your silver plated stuff and stay safe.
high voltage breakers and switchgear, power plants and substationsQuote:
Originally Posted by Bear
Quote:
Originally Posted by 79corvett
For a silver cell the anode of course would be silver along with a few impurity's.
This is a topic that belongs on the gold forum where the experts can baby sit you from doing something foolish.
ive been studding and reading about the concept, it is basically reverse plating, im sitting on about 20 pounds of gold plated metal ive been thinking about refining, honestly i know nothing about actually refining. Id try looking for info on a refining forum.
Do not under any circumstances melt them without proper equipment.Quote:
Originally Posted by Starmex
Those look like silver cadmium oxide contacts. The larger contacts are alloyed with cadmium so prevent scoring if they arc electricity. If you see burn marks on them, it might not be alloyed with cadmium, but you cannot assume anything. When Cadmium is heated above a certain point, it gives off gases. When you breath it in, if in small enough amounts, it might only increase your risk of cancer by 25%, in large amounts it can kill you. Not only that but it has a half life of 25 years, and even if you drink a ton of water, and pee constantly, you are only going to expel about .01% of the total amount you accumulate in your body.
Cadmium is commonly found in all kinds of silver alloys. It's another reason why you should be melting silver anything, unless you know the material does not have cadmium. It's also part of the reason why certain types of silver jewelry from certain countries cause people to break out in green, because the silver is alloyed with nickel, cadmium or both.
Are the silver contacts yours, and are you looking to sell them?
Do you know what they came off of? What type of connecters they are? The silver percentage can vary. However, if you have a silver testing solution, you can generally tell the purity by the color the solution turns to on the silver when first you apply it, and then later when it changes it's color.
Scott
What part of Gus's post did you not read?? One of our forum's experts giving you good advice, you might do well to heed it.Quote:
Originally Posted by 79corvett
Gold Refining Forum.com • Index pageQuote:
This is a topic that belongs on the gold forum where the experts can baby sit you from doing something foolish.
That is a fairly common misconception. You cannot just throw silver in nitric acid to recover silver plating. I'm sorry but it doesn't work that way. Look at the reactivity table for metals. Ntric acid attacks the copper before the silver, once silver enough is removed for the copper to be attacked by the acid, the acid will attack the copper and leave the silver until the copper is extenuated. You may be able to trick or tease other results, but that takes being an expert in this type of thing, and understanding/knowing how to manipulate the reaction. It takes 7 times more nitric acid to dissolve copper than it does to dissolve silver. It takes 2 grams about of nitric acid to dissolve 1 gram of silver, that means it takes 14 grams of nitric acid to dissolve 1 gram of copper. A case of Nitric Acid usually costs around $250 depending on where in the US you live.Quote:
Originally Posted by 79corvett
Without getting into specifics, it's not really worth the time, effort and energy to recover silver plating, not unless you have a lot of it, the correct equipment, a copper electrolytic cell, are able to process the slimes for values, etc and on and on and on.
Silver, of all the metals, is the most expensive and most difficult to recover and refine. Platinum and Palladium are converted from chloride to metal by heat, Rhodium is usually just retained as metallic powder, as well as the other PGMs because of what it takes to melt them. Silver however involves more aspects of the refining processes, than the other precious metals.
I wouldn't suggest anyone who is attempting to learn about refining to start with silver. Gold is the easiest and most straight forward. I would start with gold before attempting any other precious metal, even before suggesting copper.
Scott
If you want to make a silver electrolytic solution, you have to dissolve both copper and silver. And so much silver that it can be expensive. Imagine dissolving 250 ounces of silver and 50 ounces of copper into a vat of acid, then using a rectifier at around 300 amps, at 4.5 volts in order to be able to refine 600+ ounces of silver a day.Quote:
Originally Posted by gustavus
No if I were you, I wouldn't even entertain the idea of starting with refining silver, no way. Gold is far easier. And you shouldn't be asking those questions here. All the processes to refine precious metals can be incredibly dangerous. You have a lot of work to do before you even attempt to start refining anything, and even before silver, you should learn how to refine gold. Gold is the easiest in my opinion.
If you want the Hoke book on refining precious metals, message me. I have a brand spanking new one I will sell to you for $99.00. If you go to the Gold Refining Forum, everyone is going to tell you to read Hoke before attempting anything.
Scott
Gold plate is removed in the sulfuric acid cell, lead cathode, juice from a battery charger the gold settles to the bottom of the cell as sludge, go to the gold forum look up member lasersteve then go to his website he has some good videos showing the process.Quote:
Originally Posted by jghilino
Case you have trouble finding Steve's site, it's located here. Main Site: Gold, Platinum, Silver, Palladium, Rhodium, Refining Learning Resources and Supplies
All the answers you need can be found at goldrefiningfourm.com. I have played around a litttle with silver recovery and can confirm all the safety precautions you will read about chemicals are real.It turned out to be more fun than profitable for me.Be safe