Silver RW&S Folding Fork

Just because the handle does not attract a magnet does not make it silver.

 

silver colored......?

 

Yeah, I agree; just wondering what it was. I work with sheet metal, and have a super power magnet that even works on most stainless steel, and it doesn't stick either, so it is what lead me to believe it could be silver. Any way for me to test it?

 

there are silver testing kits.....but having no marks on the handle......pretty much assures it was no silver content...IMHO.

 

Thanks. Missed that.

 

"Nickel Silver" would be most likely, IMHO. Does a very job as a lookalike for the real thing. Very commonly used as the base metal for a silver plated item back in the day because when the plating starts to wear, the wear does not show through as much as other alloys. Under the right conditions it will even "tarnish" a bit and the tarnish will clean up with "silver polish" too.

 

Is it possible that the handle is simply what's "left" after an outer "coating" of some sort came off? I was thinking something like MOP or bone or something along those lines, sort of like this:

The one shown here is cracking & chipping, and I was wondering what might be underneath?

from:
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/598...rk&ref=sr_gallery-1-44&organic_search_click=1

 

I doubt this; if bone wore off, the pins would have some space? Or am I wrong? The pins are flush to the handle.

There appears to be some sort of marking on the inside of the handle, but with very little room between them its hard to see. Any ideas on how I could possibly get a picture of that?

Not too worried if the whole item is silver; I am pretty sure the fork part is.

If I polish it, and a black residue comes off, does that still not mean it is silver?

I really appreciate the help; this has been so interesting!

 

Forgot my coworker had a light with small magnifier

Looks like it says either 106, 105, or 10S on the inside of both handles

 

No it does not mean it's silver - if what you mean by silver is solid silver. Could mean it's silver plated. And I suppose it might be plated, especially because it does not appear to be marked "sterling."

 

Only means a part or design number.

 

Makes sense!

I guess that means it has little to no value? From the very small amount of research I did, I thought the company only made silver

again, thanks for the info!

 

A quote in Rainwater's Encyclopedia of American Silver Manufacturers (which is quoting a company history for Wallace) "The first spoons made in this country of German or nickel silver were manufactured by Robert Wallace in 1835. From that date until January 1, 1897, we manufactured more than five million dozen nickel silver spoons, forks, etc. and not a single one bore our name or hallmark... On January 1, 1897 we began to place our nickel silver flatware on the market bearing our name."

 

5 million dozen.....there's a number u don't often see !!