Pewter?

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I found an object on the highway today that had broken off something. It was cast and looked like silver but was light. I took it home and put the propane torch to it. It melted fairly easy and left a nice silver colored blob. Think it's pewter? I've never paid attention to that stuff before. It was only about a half pound.

[sagacious]

I think it's more likely to be a die-cast zinc part. Could even be aluminum. Better be sure before adding to the pot.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

Not aluminum. Don't know about zinc. I will put it in the pot by itself and see what temp it melts at.

[chris in va]

Pewter melts at about 450f, so could have been it...kinda doubt it though rare as it is. Zinc melts at 787f.

Aluminum is 1200f. I've only seen aluminum melt when I toss a can in the campfire and find a blob in the ashes the next morning.

[sagacious]

Propane torch will melt aluminum. Makes a silvery blob. Freshly cast (recently molten) zinc has a much more bluish-color when compared to a 'silvery' metal like aluminum, and is fairly easy to distinguish if compared side-by-side. Hard to know what it is, as the description consists only of a light 1/2lb metal "object" that melted in a propane flame.

The descriminator for aluminum is that the whole piece would have to be at/near melting point to melt off a blob. Aluminum conducts heat so well that when heating to melt it, the entire piece melts very rapidly. Zinc will not do that, which tips the scale toward zinc or a zinc alloy. Pics would help, if possible.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

It's such a small amount that it is not worth the risk. I just have to get an idea of what pewter is so I get the right thing at a yard sale or auction.

[qajaq59]

It's likely just pot metal which is not much good for much.

[runfiverun]

or kirksite.
test by melt temp.
pewter usually ends up having a tarnished gold color to it unless it's really old then it looks like flat lead.

[Bass Ackward]

Hard to tell. Pewter is all over the place, mostly with a lot of tin. And the melt test isn't totally reliable.

I have some aluminum based Babbitt (substituted for lead as a base element) that melts around 550 degrees so I do think that it has been blended at one time too. Has zinc and some copper in it too.

Point is that the melting points of a lot of things lowers when it is blended. The only test I would trust is the mold test before I did any .... blending to make use of the tin.

[mtgrs737]

Could you drip some muratic acid on it to see if the acid will react with the zinc if present?

[Charlie Two Tracks]

Since I have very little experience with pewter, I am trying to find out what to do with items that are not stamped. Thanks for all the repies.

[Echo]

It's likely just pot metal which is not much good for much.

I heard once that the most common pot metal was 1/3 Sn, 2/3 Sb, and as such was very desirable.

[sagacious]

I heard once that the most common pot metal was 1/3 Sn, 2/3 Sb, and as such was very desirable.
Would that it were so! :)

"Pot metal" has no specific definition or composition. Most die-cast stuff you see is zinc alloy.

[lwknight]

Since I have very little experience with pewter, I am trying to find out what to do with items that are not stamped. Thanks for all the repies.
Melt them if they will. Then add a small amount of lead to see if it alloys in or gunks up to some fugly dross oatmeal looking junk.
If it gunks up , toss it.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

IT'S ZINK! I left a small amount of lead in my pot and at 600 deg. it just floated. Bummer. I thought it was pewter. Back to the drawing board. Thanks for the help guys.

[357maximum]

Some "POT METALS" are magnesium based.........and them alloys are very "INTERESTING" once you manage to set them on fire........be careful out there. If you ever do a propane test like that and it lights up......DO NOT put water on it.......trust me.[smilie=b:..it resembles the big mortars in a fireworks display when you put water on them and the flying flaming chunks will burn right through you.

[Eagles6]

I've eaten things I've found along the road but never thrown them into the castin' pot.
Where's your sense boy?;)

[lwknight]

Magnesium is pretty hard to get burning but its cool to play with as long as you have made arrangements for it and not cought by surprise.
It is soo hungry for oxygen that it actually steals the O2 from h2o and releases hydrogen gas to burn again when it gets air to it.