Does anyone know who can supply Silver Hinges suitable for small jewelry boxes.
I know about Lee Valley and many of the usual suspects - brass only.
So far only hinges I can find are brass.. or brass-plated steel.
google is your friend. somewhere out there they exist.
if that fails, any bench jeweller could whip out a pair or three in no time. might not even cost all that much.
On Wed, 02 Feb 2005 19:20:17 -0500, the inscrutable Will spake:
Try
By silver you are referring to chrome or nickel plate?
Try Sugatsune.
I can vouch for their quality being one of the better.
UA100
Tried google. If It had worked - I would not have posted here. Phoned Jewelers. No one likes making custom hinges.
These hinges appear to be brass and steel - lots of hinges - did not see anything made of silver.
Went through many sites like this.
Unisaw A100 wrote:
There is a similar site for Silver smiths. I tried that - could not find any one.
I will look through here some more - but no luck after a quick review.
Larry Jaques wrote:
thanks to everyone who read this and tried to help.
Still looking.
Will wrote:
You could try to make your own, I suppose.
Some leads here: .
Try looking for Nickel-Silver hinges, too.
scott
Is silver rigid enough in the size you want for the application?
All the jewellery boxes I've ever seen (and I have four sisters...) have had small brass hinges.
Another hobby of mine is silversmithing. Making a good hinge from sterling sheet is a difficult and time consuming process. You have to make a large tube from flat stock and pull it through a drawplate until its the proper size. Continuous annealing is required after every second or third pull as the sterling work hardens. While drawing it down you have to plan for the hole size for the pin as well. Then the tube is cut into pieces and silver soldered to the two opposite sides. Sounds pretty easy but the tubing edges should be cut perfectly flat and all the pieces should fit together after soldering with no side to side play but without binding. Check out some antique sterling tea pots to see what I mean. A well made hinge with no play at all but is strong and attractive is the mark of a fine silversmith. Just being a hobbiest, it would take me several hours to make a single hinge from sheet. Having said all that, like you I some day want to make some silver hinges for boxes but will probably make wax patterns and try casting them first. Of course silver is pretty soft and if using solid silver, one would want to make pretty thick hinge leafs and barrels and maybe use a non-metal pin. Sterling is harder but with the additional copper added it oxidises and needs to be polished periodically.
Another hobby of mine is silversmithing. Making a good hinge from sterling sheet is a difficult and time consuming process. You have to make a large tube from flat stock and pull it through a drawplate until its the proper size. Continuous annealing is required after every second or third pull as the sterling work hardens. While drawing it down you have to plan for the hole size for the pin as well. Then the tube is cut into pieces and silver soldered to the two opposite sides. Sounds pretty easy but the tubing edges should be cut perfectly flat and all the pieces should fit together after soldering with no side to side play but without binding. Check out some antique sterling tea pots to see what I mean. A well made hinge with no play at all but is strong and attractive is the mark of a fine silversmith. Just being a hobbiest, it would take me several hours to make a single hinge from sheet. Having said all that, like you I some day want to make some silver hinges for boxes but will probably make wax patterns and try casting them first. Of course silver is pretty soft and if using solid silver, one would want to make pretty thick hinge leafs and barrels and maybe use a non-metal pin. Sterling is harder but with the additional copper added it oxidises and needs to be polished periodically.
I had a similar problem a few years ago. My solution was in fact a solution:- The Silver Solution! Made by Sheffco, it is a "Patented Formula for Plating and Re-plating Silver" It certainly does that, and as the instructions state, it can also be used on many other metals, but performs best on copper, brass, and not very well on mild steel. I also used it to plate some bullets to give to my kids to keep them safe from werewolves.You just can't be to careful, can you? Anyhow, in the U.K. it cost me =A310, and it is available from:
SHEFFCO LTD.
50-52 CHANCERY LANE LONDON WC2A 1HLTELE. 01-405-8868
I hope this helps
As I said in my original reply, I was assuming you meant chrome or nickel.
Sorry, can't help you and I really doubt anyone else will be able to either.
A'yup. One of the problems with the Internet. Have you Googled the Hunt brothers?
Unisaw A100
Mike:
This is what I heard from a silversmith. So I wanted to find a commercial silversmith who had overcome these problems and had set up some commercial processes to bring down the price...
I got some used fixer (from SWMBO -- the xray tech) and was going to try plating some brass hinges. This is what the next lady is suggesting
Other alternative is Precious Metal Clay - You can find it on the web. You form it and fire it - like ceramics in a nice hot 1100-1800 Deg. F. degree oven. But the other smith -- who had made hinges as a student project -- felt the stresses would be too high.
FYI:
I got some used fixer (from SWMBO -- the xray tech) and was going to try plating some brass hinges.
Let you know if it works - I am sure I have a battery and a nail here somewhere? Or a nickel if that doesn't work. :-))
Limey Lurker wrote:
Just a comment here but remember that silver tarnishes. And polishing it when it's tightly fitted to wood without staining the wood with the polish is likely to be a bear. You might want to take a look at nickel as an alternative--almost but not quite the same color and it tarnishes a lot less. It's also pretty tough stuff.
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