Hello all, sorry it's been a while. I'm asking this on behalf of my better half, Andy. He has knitted a couple of suits of mail, a link at a time, for the medieval society battlefield. He is now keen to make a more artistic piece, which will not be used in real battle, but will basically show off his skill as an artisan. He has created several hundred scales, the size of the bowl of a teaspoon. These will be worked until they are convex and roughly leaf or feather shaped. Each has a hole at the long end, and will be linked to it's neighbour through normal mail links. I believe the material he is using is laser cut mild steel. He's thinking about the finish, as no matter how you polish them, they'll still look like steel. I asked if he planned to chrome or anodise them, and he said he was actually hoping to have them plated in silver. Once he has accomplished that with some confidence, he's contemplating making scales out of solid sterling. That would be a very long term project. SO! Can anyone recommend a silver plater to whom one could send bulk scales? We are in Brisbane. Could we take them somewhere? For the future project, is it easy to find 2mm thick sheet sterling? Where? Thanks and I hope this makes sense.
I wonder if an electroplater could help you? In theory any electroplater could do this, they may have to buy an electrode and silver solution if they don't already have them. But they probably do as getting things gold & silver plated is relatively common. I've 'googled' few links about this. This firm is a Qld based electroplater: http://www.qldchromeplating.com.au/ This firm actually says they do silver plating: http://www.electroplating-australia.com.au/ And this firm supplies both the silver solution and electrodes: http://www.goldn.com.au/contact_spa_pla.htm This is wikipedia's page on electroplating: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroplating Hope my 2 cents comes in handy. Make sure you post some photos when it's finished
I should be able to source you some fairly cheap sterling sheet in Brissy. Shop around properly and you should get the right product cheap as chips. Electroplating gets the aesthetic effect, but we all know that plated items tarnish or wear over time. At least a pure sterling piece wont. Does your fella do any forging either? I've a blade design for a dagger I need forged at the moment. Base metal would be fine, as I'm going to cast it in .925 afterwards. I could forge it myself, but I'm far too lazy!
Hey Pikey. He will one day. He hasn't got a forge yet, but he plans to get one. He has many alloy ingots he melted from old printing plates that might do the trick. I'll ask him. I'd love to see the design anyway!
Pikey, an old file will probably do. Apparently the rusty ones are the right kind of iron for making knives, plenty of Youtube videos on it but I bought a dvd on making modern Japanese bladed weapons and old files make nice tantos. There are also some nice vids on making a small forge suitable for knife making, not that you need it much, annealing to make the iron soft enough to file into shape and then heat hardening it at the end. I put my name down for a knife workshop where you can spend two days with a blacksmith making a knife but at $400 it seemed a lot of money. Just a quick idea about the sterling scales, is there anyway of using pre dec currency? Personally I would use 50% pre dec shilling or florins, tumble them until the design is removed and then cut to shape, 50% is harder wearing and will cost half as much. It will also be about the cheapest you can find. 925 is not as plentiful but you can probably find plenty. Thinner than you are looking for but lighter and unless you go into battle it shouldn't matter over much. Love to see pics at the end!
Jis I did think of that, but I wasn't sure whether defacing the coins was legal or not. One of those machines for turning copper coins into longer, curved/stamped souvenirs came to mind. I remember seeing one at the Easter show years ago.
I get confused about each country's laws, they all seem to be different. The coin squashing machines are a good example of this, as are coin rings and drilling a hole in them to wear around your neck. I would err on the side of caution, whether it is legal or just that they haven't bothered to prosecute anyone yet I don't know. You could try using NZ pre dec if any are handy. Or American junk quarters at 90%. Harder to come by in this country though. English predecimal, half crowns are a nice size! Or pouring molten silver into molds.
