Video & Film Solutions Film Silver

Recycled Film Silver

All film contains silver. Some more than others. On B&W film, the dark part of the emulsion is where the silver stayed, and the light part is where it has been washed away. In color processing bleach softens all the silver and washes away in the fixer. The fixer from all film processors contains this silver in the solution. To extract it from the fixers of the various processors, a metal drum is spun in the fixer with an electrical charge. It is very similar to how silver plating is done. This silver is then dried and sold back as metal. All film processors do this, and it is content and film stock dependent on how much silver is left. The silver recovered is very pure.

We decided that maybe this silver could be made into items rather than just sold back. A metal furnace was purchased to allow for melting and pouring of the silver. We make molds from graphite blocks, which are machined on our in house CNC mill. They are hand poured and finished in our machine shop.

Each item is the aggregate of thousands of images and sounds. They have beautifully pure reflectivity because it is pure silver. Sterling contains about 7.5% copper to make it harder. but this causes the color to be a little off. These items can be purchased and custom designs can be milled. If you are interested in seeing more of our current shapes or would like to purchase, please email tommy@videofilmsolutions.com. Prices depend on the weight of the item.

A few pictures of collecting silver, melting and pouring, and the resulting shapes. (Click pictures to enlarge)