Nickel Silver machine screws and rod

[mhackney]

Hello, I am looking for suppliers of 2-56, 4-40 and 8-32 nickel silver screws. Round, flat or oval head ok. Also looking for 1/4" x 1/2" or 3/8" x 1/2" bar and 1/8" x 1/4" bar. Been looking for the screws for over a year with no luck for small (1000 pieces) orders.

Edit: the subject should be "bar" not "rod". I do have suppliers for round rod, I need flat bar.

Any leads greatly appreciated.

cheers,
Michael

[paulsv]

I have purchased Nickel Silver rod in small quantities from Online Metals:

http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant...p=2&top_cat=79

[mhackney]

Yes, me too! I am looking for rectangular bar though and they do not carry that.

[paulsv]

You might call their customer service people and see if they can order you some bar from their supplier.

I know rod and reel makers have always liked nickel silver hardware and accents, and I wonder why that is. Just tradition, perhaps? Seems like stainless fasteners would be functionally equivalent and just as non-corroding.

[mhackney]

Thanks again. OnlineMetals is on Facebook and I "friended" them several months ago. I have asked their CS person of they could get it and basically she said that they will consider it. But so far, nope.

Nickel Silver (18% nickel is what we are after) works like brass, can be soldered like brass, and takes on a lovely patina. It has a more pleasant appearance to fisherman for some reason! It predates stainless, so that is why it was used early on. Some reelmakers do use stainless screws on their nickel silver reels but they stick out like a sore thumb IMHO. I hand cut my screws but really need 100s of them and it is tedious work. I've contacted several US screw makers/machine shops and none of them want to work in nickel silver - probably because it isn't easy to find the stock. It machines nicely so that shouldn't be a problem.

cheers,
Michael