Pounding out coin silver

[Tom Currie]

I've pounded out coin silver before by heating and quenching in water to anneal and then whack with the biggest hammer I've got, then repeat the process. It's a lot of work. Any idea's on a different or better process ?

[JTR]

Yeah, buy some sheet coin silver  no pounding required!
John

[Tom Currie]

John , That's way to obvious. I prefer the cheap hard labor method.

[dogcreek]

I don't know about better. But as kids, we used to put coins on rails and let a train run over them. It flattened then and even curved them somewhat. You'll lose some coins this way.

[Bill of the 45th]

Coin silver like copper, you don't have to quench the silver, when annealing.  What I do is heat it to cherry, and then use a homemade flatter, which are two pieces of half inch steel, that I preheat so as not to heat sink the silver or brass.  I also use a couple of pieces of iron wire of the thickness I want as spacers on either side of the metal.  Mapp is way better than propane for this.  It seems like it's twice the heat, even though I know it's not.  Then I beat the heck out of it.

Bill

[Roger Fisher]

I don't know about better. But as kids, we used to put coins on rails and let a train run over them. It flattened then and even curved them somewhat. You'll lose some coins this way.

But beware the railroad dicks!

When we were kids and had any coins we made a beeline to the store to buy wings cigs (the long ones) @ 12 cents a pack!!

[Mike Brooks]

I don't anneal, just pound them out.

[davec2]

Buy a rolling mill on e-bay.  I got a really nice heavy duty unit for $40 once.  A scrap yard was using it to peel the insulation off copper wire.  Took a day to clean it up and get it back into shape for rolling metal sheet.

[Acer Saccharum]

anneal on a charcoal block. The charcoal reflects the heat and absorbs a bit of the oxygen, helps keep the silver from oxydizing. Silver does not need a water quench, but it cools quicker. The silver will need to be annealed every so often to keep it from cracking. Polished anvil and polished hammer makes for a shiny piece of silver that needs little clean up.

Acer

a rolling mill is best, but not many folks will spring for one for the occasional front sight. If you get into melting down silver,then, yes, a mill would be handy for rolling out the ingots into sheet.

[David Rase]

a rolling mill is best, but not many folks will spring for one for the occasional front sight.

After wedding rings, promise rings for my daughters, a couple of sets of ear rings, a gold pendant and chain and several repairs on various other pieces of jewelry I have come to know (support)  my jeweler very well which has entitled me to a few (freebie) rolling mill jobs.  My jeweler, as with most custom jewelers is an artist, and being a custom gunmaker qualifies me as an artist so forming this artist to artist relationship has entitled me to some help and tutoring on working with silver.  I am sure it has nothing to do with the large amounts of cash I handed over to him over the years to keep my bride and daughters happy.
DMR