Hi, everyone.
This may seem like an elementary question - one of those that I
should be embarrassed to ask by now, but I’ve never done it.
I have a 100 tr oz fine silver “brick”. How can I get it converted
to, say, 8-gauge sheet?
Thanks
ginger meek allen
little cottage studio
Hi Ginger,
I bought a “brick” of silver during the silver rush in the 70’s, and
finally decided to cut it down to use it for jewelry. I’m talking
$20 an ounce silver here….
I tried to cut them with a hack saw, and the saw would get clogged
up in a few swipes. No amount of heat I could produce in my shop
would melt it.
I tried everything I could think of, and finally had to go to a
machinist shop to get it cut into smaller bars that I could handle.
I now melt those smaller bars, and pour the molten metal into a
bucket of water to make small granules. Then I use the granules to
melt together into rods to make wire, or nuggets to run through the
mill to make sheet.
In hindsight, it would have been better to take the 100 oz brick to
a bullion dealer and swap it for smaller bricks. Fine silver comes
in 1 oz, 5 oz, and 10 oz bricks. I think it would have been worth
the extra few bucks to swap it for about 50 one ounce bricks to roll
into sheet and 5 ten ounce bricks to melt for casting.
Love and God Bless
-randy
http://www.rocksmyth.com