Hi James,
You just don’t hear of them, or any other metallurgical studies for
that matter (even though, personally, I would find this fascinating).
At some stage I’d like to do a colour study, with gold and copper
going from 1% gold to 100% gold, same with silver, and the same with
a lot of the other elements, then I would know. Of course if this has
already been done, I would appreciate a link.
The fun for me is the attempt, if the attempt fails, you still learn
something, if the attempt succeeds then we all benefit.
…
A copper and silver mix, is a time tested product.
Copper combines with a lot of other elements fairly easily, and
silver is pretty close on the periodic table, so it will combine with
a lot of elements also. The difference, and you are very correct in
stating the point, the properties of the resultant alloys are
different.
If you mix copper and tin together you get a very useful and durable
alloy. As long as you don’t go over 12% Sn, then it becomes brittle,
and needs other elements added to it to make it a bit more
forgiving. You can add zinc to copper also, again carefully watching
the percentage of Zn produces a useful alloy. Germanium and tin are
very close and as both of these can mix with copper to form a useful
alloy, logically they can mix with silver also.
There is scope to experiment, say you make a nice .925 with an
element close to germanium, and it’s a little brittle, you could
possible add another element into the mixture to solve that problem.
OR you can find a different technique to combining the elements that
overcome the problems with a new alloy.
…
Experimenting is something that I believe should be encouraged, and
aided where you can.
Regards Charles A.