Nickel silver

[labrat]

Track of the wolf sales brass or nickel silver inlay ornaments. Question....can I cut or grind them smaller or is this a silver plating ? If so I will have to order sterling silver sheets to make my own.......Thanks for any help

 

[hawkeye2]

German silver all the way through, they are not plated so you can cut or grind them with no problems.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
German silver or "nickel silver' is an alloy of nickel and copper. It is silvery all the way through but over time yields a yellowish tint because of the copper. Because of that, it is easily distinguishable from actual silver.

dave

 

[labrat]

Thank you for your quick responses. I'll make my order now. Dave does it take yrs to discolor or does this happen very quickly. John

 

[Commodore Swab]

Also known as white bronze or brass. The lack of silver is resulting in it now more frequently being called white bronze/brass. FYI the same metal used in nickles.

 

[dave_person]

Hi John,
The discoloring takes time but can be avoided by periodic polishing. The yellowing is very subtle and you won't really notice it until you place the piece next to real silver that is not greatly tarnished. Here is an example of it on a fine English fowler from the 18th century.

You can just make out the yellowish tinge on the bow. At the time this gun was made, commercially made German silver or nickel silver not available. Instead, there was this exotic, rare, naturally occurring ore from China called paktong. It was a mystery, silver that did not tarnish and considered rare and valuable. Then, somewhat during the 18th century but in a large commercial way in the 19th, German metallurgists discovered the ore was an alloy of copper, nickel, and zinc, and learned how to make it. There was no silver in it and they learned how to make it cheaply and in quantity. All of a sudden, the market, value, and cachet for paktong collapsed.

dave

 

[Clark Badgett]

Also known as white bronze or brass. The lack of silver is resulting in it now more frequently being called white bronze/brass. FYI the same metal used in nickles.

Whoever coined those terms was a metallurgical nimrod. Bronze is copper/tin base alloy, brass is copper/zinc base alloy.