silver plated trays as slumping molds

[kaxaglass]

I was given some old silver plated trays that could be nice shapes for forming glass.
Can I burn off the silver plate in my kiln then apply kiln wash like for stainless steel milds ? Not sure what the base metal is - bronze or brass maybe.
If so, does anyone know what temperature to burn off the silver and is it toxic?

[charlie]

the melting point of silver is almost 1800f. you're not going to be able to burn it off. it will also discolor a lot of the glasses you're going to put on it, along with not doing good things to any shelf you put it on.

the melting point of brass is around 1700f, bronze around 1750, and copper around 1900f. however, copper spalls terribly, so might just flake off the silver if that's the base.

old silverplate trays may have some intrinsic value, that you'll lose by heating them.

[Tom Fuhrman]

try sandblasting the silver off and then prepare with kiln wash, then you don't risk contaminating your kiln from the silver.

[Bert Weiss]

I would pass. Silver can contaminate your kiln and mark everything with yellow blotches for a long time to come.

[Morganica]

Most silverplated trays kinda thinnish; while the metal probably won't melt in the heat it could flex and distort, which could leave you with a wompy-jawed slump (just heard that phrase, love it).

You're also going to be either slumping into the top of the tray or slumping over the bottom, so you might not get the results you're expecting. A lot of platters and vessels have rounded interiors and footed bottoms--if you slump into the tray it might wobble and if you slump over the bottom you'll lose the decoration on top and may get impressions of the base that you don't like.

The better bet might be to make a permanent mold from the tray, of something like Castalot. Then you can coat the mold with kiln wash and use it just like any other slumping mold. There's less danger of distortion, and a heckuva lot less trouble. Or, if you want to reproduce the tray exactly, look at how it's done on a website like smooth-on.com--it's not trivial.

[Judd]

The trays sound more trouble then they are worth. Look for stainless steel mixing bowls, woks, etc. at your local thrift store.