Ten Steps in Making a Spoon

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Silver is an ore – a precious metal. When refined to the degree of absolute purity it is melted into ingots weighing from 500 to 600 ounces. Nine hundred twenty-five parts of this pure or fine silver are alloyed with 75 parts pure copper in order to give it the strength and sturdiness of a metal that can be manipulated and fashioned into useful and decorative utensils.

This metal is known as “Sterling Silver” – 925/1000 fine. Since about 1860 (in the U.S.), an article of silver that does not assay .925 is not “Sterling” and it is unlawful to stamp it so. The mark “Sterling” is your guarantee of the same quality throughout the article. These ingots when alloyed into sterling quality, are poured into skillets or slabs and then brought to the rolling machines where they are rolled into sheets of various gauges, depending upon the article to be made.

Here is an illustration of the 10 steps in making a spoon:

Top Row

(1) The blank is cut.

(2) The blank is cross rolled to widen it.

(3) The piece is rolled lengthwise.

(4) The piece is rolled to varying thicknesses to obtain the correct proportions

of the handle and give strength were needed.

(5) The blank is punched to bring out the form of the spoon.

Bottom Row

(6) The punched-out form.

(7) Forming of the bowl.

(8) The pattern is then struck in die with excess silver pressed out between

upper and lower dies.

(9) Edge is clipped and ready for finishing.

(10) The finished spoon.

See also Brief History of the Spoon

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 14th, 2006 at 1:53 pm and is filed under Reference Articles, Sterling Silver Flatware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.