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Sterling Silver Wire: 925 Silver to 75 Copper, Cast and Drawn
Sterling silver is 925 parts silver to 75 parts copper. Fine silver alone is generally too soft for working objects, so it is alloyed with copper for strength (Wikipedia, Sterling silver). Melted together, cast in a bar and drawn down through a drawplate, it becomes wire.
The picture: a silversmith drawing silver wire for jewellery, Trinidad, 1930s.
Advanced
A day
Instructions
1
1
Weigh
Weigh
Weigh fine silver and copper in the ratio 925 to 75 (see the notebook).
Materials for this step:
Fine Silver92.5 g
Copper Ingot7.5 gTools needed:
Balance Scale2
2
Melt and cast
Melt and cast
Melt the silver in a crucible with a pinch of borax, add the copper and stir until one even liquid, then pour into a warmed ingot mould as a thin bar.
Materials for this step:
Borax Powder1 as required
Charcoal1 as requiredTools needed:
Graphite-Clay Crucible
Charcoal Furnace
Crucible Tongs
Ingot Mould
Heat-Resistant Gloves3
3
Draw the wire
Draw the wire
Hammer the bar round, file a taper and draw it hole by hole through the drawplate, annealing to a dull red with the torch whenever it stiffens, as copper wire is drawn.
4
4
Weighing sterling
Weighing sterling
Loading Jupyter Notebook...
Materials
4- 92.5 gPlaceholder
- 7.5 gPlaceholder
- 1 as requiredPlaceholder
- 1 as requiredPlaceholder
Tools Required
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