Casting Nickle Silver

I have a customer who has asked me to cast small hardware in nickel
silver. He restores antique furniture. The cast will be lost wax. I
have some. (old flat ware). I have never cast this material. If you
can share advice on it’s casting properties I will be very
interested.

If you would suggest a different metal that would also be
interesting. (by the way he intends to silver plate it after
polishing)

Thanks for you help.

Franklin

Hi Franklin;

I have a customer who has asked me to cast small hardware in
nickel silver. 

Nickel silver is really just nickel, I’m pretty sure. It’s not an
easy metal to cast, it’s hard to melt. I’ll bet you’ll hate it. Why
not try one of the bronze alloys like white bronze or caster’s
bronze? Rio Grande has a nice selection of non-precious casting
metals. Pewter is a breeze to cast, you can cast it directly into a
silicon rubber mold, but you’re not going to find it easy to have
plated, and of course, it’s pretty soft, but it’s pretty and if the
sections are thick it’s strong enough. Bronze will plate pretty
easily, but you’d be advised to have a specialist handle it for you.
It’ll probably need to have a copper flash, then a nickel coat, then
whatever you like after that. Silver might not be good choice if it’s
going to be handled a lot, since it’s going to have to be very thick
if it’s not going to wear off. Better with just the nickel plate.

David L. Huffman

I would steer clear of casting nickel silver. Typical nickel silver
casting alloys have a high melting point (2400 F) and tend to be
prone to gas porosity. You will have best results with a high
temperature investment. If he wants to plate it anyway why not
something easy like a silicon bronze then nickel plate before silver
plate.

Jim

James Binnion
@James_Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

360-756-6550

I have a customer who has asked me to cast small hardware in
nickel silver.

Nickel silver is really just nickel, I'm pretty sure. It's not an
easy metal to cast, it's hard to melt. 

Nickle silver is about 65% copper, 15-18% zinc, and the balance
nickle (17-20%). It’s got a beastly melting point of 2030F/1110C.
It’s basically a type of brass. I know that you can cast the stuff,
but it’s a beast.

Ron Charlotte – Gainesville, FL
@Ron_Charlotte1 OR afn03234@afn.org

Nickel silver is really just nickel, I'm pretty sure. 

Nickel Silver is not just nickel it is family of copper alloys (I
found 27 listed on www.copper.org) that are copper-nickel-zinc
alloys some have as much as 27% nickel most are greater than 60 %
copper. Most of the listed alloys are wrought alloys with only 4 of
them listed as being casting alloys. The casting alloys are C97300,
C97400, C97600, and C97800 you can look up their properties on

Jim

James Binnion
@James_Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

360-756-6550

Nickel silver is a nickel brass (i.e., it contains copper, zinc, and
nickel). The alloy listed in the back of Tim McCreight’s The
Complete Metalsmith, has 65% Cu, 17% Zn, and 18% Ni. Its melting
point is 2030 degrees Fahrenheit.

Having said this, I can’t say how easily it would cast. It does
polish nicely, not quite as nice as silver, but close.

Judy Bjorkman

Having said this, I can't say how easily it would cast. It does
polish nicely, not quite as nice as silver, but close. 

In Latin America a fair amount of jewelry is made of a white brass
called alpaca. No relation to the animal just the same name ALPACA: A
silver substitute which is an alloy of approximately 60% copper, 20%
nickel, 20% zinc and 5% tin. Some of this is sold with a sterling
stamp- illegal but sales doesn’t seem to be prosecuted. Easy to spot
the color is just a little yellowish. I have also seen some “gold”
cast of alpaca and plated. In one case in Mexico I asked about these
gold pieces and was honestly told what it was! Maybe Sam Patinia can
add to this-- I can’t.

jesse

The casting alloys are C97300, C97400, C97600, and C97800 you can
look up their properties on 

It doesn’t cast well. Linus