joshua.M Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Hi everyone, i have a freind who went to an auction and bought about 30lbs of silver cutlery, mis matched sets and broken peices, most is solid silver but there is some that are plated copper, my question is what kind of set up would i need to melt it down? and what would happen if i melted down the plated? would the two metals seperate or would they act differantly? thanks Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Silver and copper will mix if melted together and form an alloy. Sterling silver is 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper. Britannia silver has more copper, and is harder. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_silver http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia_silver There are also brasses that contain silver such as Billon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billon_%28alloy%29 You may want to cut the flatware before melting to make sure what is what. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric sprado Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Your friend spent some money even though silver has dropped a bit to $30 per troy ounce! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Don't mix them! The silver plated stuff will have little silver in them and so will be most like throwing that much base metal into the other silver. Try to melt each alloy separately (ie fine siver with fine silver, sterling with sterling, coin silver with coin silver, etc) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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