A primer on types of metals?

[blowero]

I was showing an object to a friend, and I said it was silver, to which he replied, “That’s not silver; it’s nickel”. Well, I thought nickel was a kind of silver; I thought it was an alloy of silver and something else. I neglected to query him further on it, but now I’m thinking about it, and I was wondering if anyone might be able to offer a basic list of the different types of metals, and what’s in them. I believe copper is an element, right? And brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, right? But,

What’s in sterling silver?
What’s in nickel silver?
What’s bronze?
What do “ferrous” and “non-ferrous” mean?
etc.

Thanks.

[xayoz306]

Ferrous and non-ferrous describe whether or not the alloy in question contains iron.

[fluoextinchcl]

Well, Nickel is an element too. (webelements.com), and if you click on the Uses link you can see that it’s frequently alloyed with lots of other stuff, like for instance, the percentage of Silver in the US nickel coin, or steel, which we call “stainless steel”.

From the webelements uses of Silver (Ag) page:

Sterling silver is used for jewellery, silverware, etc. where appearance is paramount. This alloy contains 92.5% silver, the remainder is copper or some other metal.

So “sterling” just means 92.5% or better.

You are correct, brass is Copper (Cu) and Zinc (Zn).
Bronze is usually Cu + Tin (Sn) + maybe Lead (Pb) and a whole collection of other stuff. copper.org

[Napier]

You might enjoy reading “A Guide to the Elements” by Stwertka. It’s a pretty, gee-whiz book that discusses interesting properties, trivia, and more. There are nice pictures too. Lots of information, but not really primarily a technical reference, more of an interesting tour. Since so many of the elements are metals, your answers would be in here. It does mention many of the alloys like brass and bronze and sterling silver.

[blowero]

@fluoextinchcl

Well, Nickel is an element too. (webelements.com), and if you click on the Uses link you can see that it’s frequently alloyed with lots of other stuff, like for instance, the percentage of Silver in the US nickel coin, or steel, which we call “stainless steel”.

So would what we call “nickel silver” be an alloy of nickel and silver?

[Desmostylus]

@blowero

So would what we call “nickel silver” be an alloy of nickel and silver?

No. There’s no silver in nickel silver. Just nickel, copper and zinc. It’s brass with nickel added.

[Cillasi]

Here’s an interesting view of the periodic table if you want to go beyond the obvious:

http://www-tech.mit.edu/Chemicool/

[II_Gyan_II]

@Napier

You might enjoy reading “A Guide to the Elements” by Stwertka. It’s a pretty, gee-whiz book that discusses interesting properties, trivia, and more. There are nice pictures too. Lots of information, but not really primarily a technical reference, more of an interesting tour. Since so many of the elements are metals, your answers would be in here. It does mention many of the alloys like brass and bronze and sterling silver.

I was going to recommend John Emsley’s Nature’s Building Blocks, but after going through the above work at Amazon, Stwertka seems better for a easier and interesting first read. Emsley covers the elements alphabetically and in each element, he has the following sections: “Cosmic element”, “Human element”, “Food element”, “Medical element”, “Element of history”, “Element of war”, “Economic element”, “Environmental element”, “Chemical element”, and “Element of surprise”.