Eye sweating detail.....

[Tiger 1]

Tony, these were stamped under great pressure. If they did not have a copper/tombak layer your finish would be nonexistent and the hardware would not stick. You cannot solder aluminum. Heck, it is difficult to weld. These are early, quality badges imo. late 30s -early 1940.

Don,

I understand what you're saying about soldering aluminum. When I was working as a part time gunsmith back in the day we had problems blueing late 60s early 70s era Winchester model 94 actions that were made of sinstered metal of some sort. The bluing salts wouldn't work. The problem was solved by first iron plating the recievers to take the blueing.

Now as you can see in the pics below there doesnt seem to be the cupal laminate nor any copper color. I suggest that the aluminum strike was plated or flashed with either low grade silver or nickle silver to allow the soldering of the fittings and then final finished and laquered.

Look closely at the wear edges there is no evidence of copper or verdigris anywhere.

Your thoughts?

[Tiger 1]

Forgot the pics.

[BROBS]

Kay

I don't understand what you mean by this. I have 2 RK both 800 silver frames, one with painted frosting and one with chemical frosting and both are intact. I am curious to know what you are referring to as 'frosting of silver wont last 10 years'. Could you explain in more detail what you mean?

Thanks
Rich

I too have a S&L ek2 with nearly perfect frosting.
Why would it fall off after 10 years?

-Brian

[Tiger 1]

There appears to be a layer of gray material between the surface and base metal.

???? Perhaps a SEM test?

Doesn't look like copper in any light.

Tony