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[Rosemaryr]

I am pre-planning/designing pieces to make for family gifts, and for the nephews, I was considering belt buckles.  My question:
If my primary material is silver, can I make the parts that will take stress (the prong, bar, hook, etc.), out of silver as well?  Or should those be steel (or something else)?  If silver, can they be work-hardened enough for regular use/abuse?  If steel, is there a special technique needed to solder them to silver?  Any metal smithing advise will be gratefully accepted.

Thanks!

[ileney]

I’ve never done it, but I’ve seen some lovely heavy duty, thick gauge buckles made purely of silver. I haven’t seen the combination of steel and silver soldered, I don’t think.

[Rosemaryr]

Thanks!
 I guess I'll have to plan on using heavy guage silver stock, then.  [And, having the belt have enough holes in the leather that it fits without too much stress on the silver!]  Design/engineering/planning.... it all starts there.