Pure silver plates

[norg]

Hello everyone,

Everyone here is talking about silver clad copper or electroplating, but I wonder if it is possible to use just pure molded silver plates, thick enough so that they would not bend easily. Is it just too expensive, or is there some difference between electroplated silver and molded one in atomic connections or sth like that?

Sorry for a new topic, I just did not find where to ask such a question..

[greg7mdp]

That’s perfectly possible, some daguerreotypists have done that. Some have even made dags on polished silver dollars, even though they are not pure silver. The main issue is the cost.

greg

[photolytic]

his article David Burder states that he once tried silver spoons for Dags.

I believe one of our site administrators started out using solid silver plates but when he switched to electroplated plates he reported that they were faster.

This may be due to the fact that the harder silver plate was easier to polish.

Rio Grande @ http://www.riogrande.com/Category/Metals/104 sells both clad silver in 18 gauge, 3 inch wide strips ($34 for 4inches) vs. $183 for a 3×4 inch sheet of 18 gauge solid silver. The silver is 92% sterling silver and the filled silver is on a 90%Cu/10%Zn base.

[Jon Lewis]

A few of my first images were done on small, pure silver plates and they worked fine. The electroplated plates I moved to were faster and I think polishing was in fact the culprit. Though whether that had to do with hardness or more polishing experience, I cannot say.

I personally liked starting with pure silver plates. It was one less equipment related issue to deal with before working with images. In the end though, pure silver plates are more expensive and tricky to polish without bending if you work with thinner stock (I was using 22 or 24 ga. fine silver).

[Author]

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