Spoon Help.

[Garabaldi]

Anyone know if I should try to clean this spoon. How old do you think it is. Seems like silver. I dug it in a park in Boston. My first large spoon.
Ty

 

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[Monty]

I've never seen a silver spoon that didn't have the word "sterling" on it somewhere. But I'm no spoon expert. I have found several silver plated ones though. Silver does turn black and I have never seen it with that redish cast like the spoon in question. I usually throw my spoon finds away because they are not silver and aren't very old, just Tnet "junque". Monty

 

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[traderoftreasures]

i have sold several items of silver that did not say sterling. i have seen more that didn't say it then did. silver plate is not very durable and will usually pit. hey Monty check your signature

 

[mile-ender]

I usually throw my spoon finds away because they are not silver and aren't very old, just Tnet "junque". Monty

Checkout replacements.com. you might think twice about tossing some of that flatware.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I think we are all in agreement that it is brass with the silverplating worn off.

The other possibility is a copper based nickle silver. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_silver

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

Just leave it as it is. Nickel/brass....may have been silver plate at one time. I have found hundreds of them, mostly early to mid 20th century. This is from one of my last outings...

 

[NGE]

Neil, nice looking windchime you have there! Don't toss yer old non-sterling spoons, knives, or forks. Turn them into profitable windchimes! Yes, you can do it too, as I have. Now for the fun part, straighten out any bent or twisted ones, it is better if you pre-heat the bowls on spoons with a propane torch first (so the bowls don't crack). I have a couple 1 inch thick steel blocks, use gloves if holding onto the spoons while heating them (copper or brass tranfers heat to the fingers rather quickly ). Lay spoon on steel block and start hammering bowl flat, then do the same with the rest of the spoon. Drill a small hole near the top of the handle ( deburr it ). Next, do the same with the forks, and maybe the knives. You may have to cut a heavy knife handle off, and just use the blade. Before I cut a spoon bowl off of its handle, I flatten the bowl first and drill two holes close to each other then skip a 1/2 inch and drill 2 more. It all depends on how many hangers you want to attach. Make one hole in the center of the the flattened bowl. I used a piece of heavy gauge insulated copper wire to suspend the whole thing . When you're done, it should look something like my pics. they make a pretty tinkling sound........NGE