Silver Blades

[Wolf 5.7]

Just as a Joke and to humor me (I've been watching werewolf movies lately) anyone ever bought/owned a silver knife or bullet?

Yes I know they are expensive. Yes silver is crap for Bullets. Argentum is even worse for blades due to it's low strength. And Laslty, I wouldn't have one except as a curio or conversation starter.

[RJay]

In the 19Th century , gentleman farmers carried small silver bladed folding knifes called fruit knifes. The silver wouldn't corrode if you cut into an apple or other fruits. The vast improvement in steel and the advent of stainless steel { late 1800's } did away with them.

[Wolf 5.7]

Originally Posted by RJay

In the 19Th century , gentleman farmers carried small silver bladed folding knifes called fruit knifes. The silver wouldn't corrode if you cut into an apple or other fruits. The vast improvement in steel and the advent of stainless steel { late 1800's } did away with them.

Cool. Thanks for the bit of history. I read somewhere that silver did not promote the growth of bacteria. Is that true as well?

[Country101]

according to some of the manufacturers of hunting clothing it is. You'll see some underarmor type stuff with silver thread to help keep down bacteria and thus smell.

[RJay]

As Country 101 posted, yes, Silver will inhibit the growth of bacteria . Silver has been used in this regard for thousands of years.

[Bill DeShivs]

My family had a bunch of silver knives. Forks, too-and spoons.

[jack404]

but at the same time silver polish has accounted for thousands of deaths over the years , win some , lose some ,

[kayak22]

A silver bullet is easily made if you have a bullet mold. Or silver plate an existing lead or copper jacketed bullet. It would not be cheap. Roughly $39.70 per ounce (troy) for the standard bar form traded on most markets. In other forms the cost could vary depending upon the purity and other costs. A 40MM bullet weighing 200 grains equals about one half ounce, so such a bullet would cost about $20.00. It would make a nice necklace or key chain fob. A little expensive to shoot, unless a werewolf is lurking around.

Plating would be considerably less costly, and looks as good.

[Alpo]

A 40MM bullet is close to two inches in diameter. Possibly you mean 40 caliber?

A silver bullet is NOT easily made, unless they guy that wrote this article is simply lying.

http://www.patriciabriggs.com/books/silver/ranger/

[Bill DeShivs]

And you'll have a hard time silver plating lead, as it amalgamates with the plating-absorbing it.
Jacketed bullets can be silver plated.

[Bill DeShivs]

Actually, any jeweler that does casting could make much nicer silver bullets than any in the article. Incredible detail can be reproduced using lost wax casting and a centrifugal casting machine. The original bullet would need to be about 5% oversize to come out at the proper diameter.

[Bigr Bang Thry]

I've been saving silver coins ( pre-1965 quarters, and 1940's era dimes ) for a while now... just in case I needed to melt them down and mold them into bullets. I've long feared that a werewolf family might move in down the block or something. You know, you can't be too prepared... Now, after reading some of this thread, I realize that I'm not the only one that has had this concern. At least I'm not the ONLY one. My plans are to cast the coins into .45 bullets, and load them into .45 colt . The other option that I have is to cast them into .620 round balls and load them into 20 gauge slugs. Which do you think would be better ?

[joncutt87]

I would imagine .620 ball would be easier to cast, but idk. You could always chem plate bullets. They don't always look nice but they would get the job done.

[Bill DeShivs]

Casting silver in conventional steel moulds doesn't work.

[Bigr Bang Thry]

Originally Posted by Bill DeShivs

Casting silver in conventional steel moulds doesn't work.

My guess is that the molten silver effectively solders the mold halves together, is that why it doesn't work ? I was afraid of that... I guess I'll just have to melt the silver and drop it to form shot. I was hoping to not have to get that close to the werewolf, but you've got to do what you've got to do !

As far as the suggestions for plating bullets with silver, I'm not sure that will work either...In all the werewolf movies I've ever seen, it required a pure silver bullet to take one down. I think you need a higher silver content than just a plated bullet would provide.

[Alpo]

That's something to wonder about.

How much silver?

Let's say we plate a 600 Nitro Express bullet with silver, and we use 50 grains of silver. Would that kill the werewolf, since the bullet is silver plated?

But if we took that same 50 grains of silver and cast a 22 bullet, and shot him with a 223, would that kill him? Solid silver bullet.

And then there is the theory of using silver coins as your bullet metal. They are not pure, but are 90% silver. Would you need to melt down the sterling silverware? Is .999 fine pure enough?

A theory I heard one time, that makes a lot of sense, to me.

You have your werewolf reeking havoc upon the countryside. You get the local hunter, who is used to shooting rabbits and pigeons, out there. He gets charged by the wolf, panics, misses his shot, and gets et.

Since we all know old Adolph is/was the greatest marksman in the county, it must be the werewolf was not harmed by the lead bullet.

So the whole village gets together and pools their money, to pay to have a silver bullet made. Will all that invested in it, they also hire a professional hunter, who will not get rattled if charged by the wolf, and will shoot straight. Result - dead wolf. Dead because he was actually hit this time, and not because the silver had any magic properties.

Yes/no/maybe? Who knows?

[Bigr Bang Thry]

See Alpo, that's what I like about you, you're always thinking... I saw a werewolf movie once where the beast got stabbed with a silverwear butterknife, and he just pulled it out and ate the bratty, half-naked girl anyways. I think that the butterknife was only plated. That's why I question the plated bullet theory. I'm gettin kind-of worried, too because there's a house down the street that's for sale, and I saw a really hairy guy looking at it the other day. That, and halloween is coming. I do think that if I have a sterling silver broadhead made, that I could put an arrow through him and maybe that would kill him. Sure hope that he doesn't hear the string and jump the shot like deer do. Oh, man... Now I'm getting nerveous about all this. Is there a season on werewolfs, and what is my taxidermist going to charge me???

I know that we sort-of hijacked this thread, but Wolf 5.7 DID mention werewolfs...

[joncutt87]

I think that if you took silver nitrate in solution and dropped a copper bullet in, that you would have enough silver plating. If you left it long enough, you would have a silver bullet

[Bigr Bang Thry]

I came up with a solution... Since it's the casting of the bullet that seems to be the problem, what if I took a chunk of silver and put it in a lathe, and turned the bullet ? That would solve the shrinkage problem, as well as the poor casting dilema. What do you think ?

[stede]

Go with the shotgun, and don't worry about casting bullets or dropping shot. Use a hacksaw to cut the silver into cubes and pack 'em in your shells. That lycanthrapope is gonna be all up in your face anyway, your shot doesn't need to be aerodynamic.
When the body turns back into a human is when your legal troubles start...

[jstgsn]

You can send every werewofl, vampire, and ghost you want after me! I can deal with them. BUT NO LIBERALS!!!

[Bigr Bang Thry]

Originally Posted by stede

Go with the shotgun, and don't worry about casting bullets or dropping shot. Use a hacksaw to cut the silver into cubes and pack 'em in your shells. That lycanthrapope is gonna be all up in your face anyway, your shot doesn't need to be aerodynamic.
When the body turns back into a human is when your legal troubles start...

Silver is a rather hard metal, compared to lead shot, so I'm a bit hesitant to put jagged pieces of silver into a shotshell, lest it scratch the hell out of the barrel and thus ruin it. No sense ruining a perfectly good gun. I'd hate to think that if I survived the werewolf attack, I did so by destroying a good gun. I still kind-of like the making silver shot idea. I have to wonder though, should I be using steel shot data ?

When the beast turns back into a human, will it look like NANCY PELOSI ?? OOOOH...SCARY either way !

[Bill DeShivs]

Silver is harder than lead, but it's still a very soft metal. There is no way it would scratch a barrel.

[popgun]

Silver nitrate ia a great disinfectant also.

[Maximilian II]

I use silver every day to braze carbide and diamond tips onto saw and cutter blades. The brazing wire is actually a 50/50 silver/nickel alloy.
If I hold the wire above my work table and melt it with my torch it forms a very round ball and hardens before landing. This is a crude version of how shot used to be made for shotgun shells. Dropped into water to cool rapidly it hardens even more.
Lacking a torch, one could cut 1/8" brazing wire into little cylinder shaped pellets and loaded into shotgun shells.
Werewolves?
Bang!