Pewter pictures and hallmarks...

[ncbearman]

Found a guy willing to ship his estate sale pewter find to me from SC. Just over 20# for $40 shipped. Long dry spell before that though!

[imashooter2]

Look a lot, find a little, pass up most of what you find for cost. Every now and again you score. Congrats ncbearman! Great haul!

[RogerDat]

While I am happy to find a little here and a little there at a decent price..... a 20# score would totally rock my world. Or at least my melt pot. Good work ncbearman.

[ncbearman]

Pewter Porn!

So something I learned while smelting this pewter and it may have been pointed out on here before, so sorry for the repeat. The temp of your melt and moulds can discolor your ingots if too high. Keep the melt as close to 450 as possible and still pour smoothly. Also After I emptied out my mould of ingots I set the mould on a wet rag to cool it down before the next pour. I have 2 potter moulds so this was efficient enough time to cool it down. If I got either too hot the ingots would come out discolored. And we don't want that!
Attachment 128155

[jsizemore]

That's right. Temp control is the deal. You get it too hot and you'll see all kinds of colors and the temp can get away from you fast with a turkey fryer. I overcome the too hot ingot mold problem by having lots of molds. Of course they ain't as pretty as the Potter molds. Nice pile.

[Horseman1]

Hey ncbearman,

Only done this a few times so I have a question. Can you elaborate on what color discolored was? I have had them take on a gold tinge. What were you seeing? Also, what is a potter mold?

Thanks,
H1

[imashooter2]

I don't know... I've cast a fair pile of pewter ingots and I pour between 550 and 650. I don't think the oxides reduce efficiently at less than 550. I've posted enough pictures of my ingots too. All nice shiny silver.

A Potter mold is a nicely sized ingot mold from the defunct Potter Company. The P makes them a great pewter mold.

[Horseman1]

Thanks for the picture of the Potter mold!

[konsole]

Could the gold color be from copper separating from the alloy? I've had some ingots where the gold color was uniform across the surface and others where the gold color was spotty, and when it was spotty it often wiped off with a rag if I tried wiping it off very soon after the ingot solidified.

[ncbearman]

Hey ncbearman,

Only done this a few times so I have a question. Can you elaborate on what color discolored was? I have had them take on a gold tinge. What were you seeing? Also, what is a potter mold?

Thanks,
H1

Yes it was gold and other colors. If it happens I remelt and cool down. Understand though its for appearance only. Discoloration in no way effects the pewter.

nNot sure if it is copper as the melt temp for copper is in the 1800 degree range.

[Horseman1]

Thanks ncbearman,

Like Konsole, it was only a very thin layer on the top surface that was exposed to the air during cooling. When my ingots had the golden hue to them, I seem to remember I needed to heat the melt up a bit more and they went to silver. Sounds like some oxides in the alloy didn't want to go back in to the melt when it wasn't hot enough, as imashooter2 suggested previously. I need to stop playing around and get a proper thermometer .

H1

[Sekatoa]

Today's flea market haul. Not much, but this interesting little Zinn-Becker cup. The cup itself I paid a little too much for generally speaking, at $2 for 4.8 oz., but it evens out with the Jostins mug for $1; making the total hall $3 for 1 lb.

The hallmark on the cup was pretty clear, but still hard to read, so I put some ink in it. Still hard to read, for me at least, but better. Pretty sure it says (means) 95% tin.

[borg]

I stopped off at 4 different GW today, and just found 1 small pic frame that was stamped just "Pewter"
It weighed about 1 # for $.99, so I bought it. You think it might be pewter?
Earlier in this thread there were several references to the "scratch and dent test". can someone tell me what that is?
TIA

[imashooter2]

Genuine pewter will scratch or shave off a nice curl very easily with a pocket knife. Thin food service pieces will bend very easily with thumb pressure. This 2nd test may, or may not be reliable with heavier sectioned pieces like picture frames.

If the frame simply says "pewter" without some other qualifier like "Mexican Pewter" or "pewter finish" it probably is (but not necessarily lead free).

[borg]

It shaves off easy in a curl, and melts with a Bic lighter.

[Crazyrcflier]

I found a picture holder today while rummaging through my moms old stuff. The little wires bend really really easy. The base and top thread together. The bottom is rougher than I think pewter should be, but I'm still a newbie at hunting and identifying pewter.

So what do I have here? Trash or unknown?

[borg]

melted down the pic frame, any other metal melt under 525?
This did so was wondering if it was true pewter

[Twmaster]

I found a picture holder today while rummaging through my moms old stuff. The little wires bend really really easy. The base and top thread together. The bottom is rougher than I think pewter should be, but I'm still a newbie at hunting and identifying pewter.

So what do I have here? Trash or unknown?

Pewter will almost never be screwed together unless there are two mating parts. Both will be pewter.

A couple of basic rules. Pewter will never be riveted, spot welded or screwed together. (see comment above about screwed parts)

Also, I've never seen a piece marked made in India that was pewter.

The piece you have there is highly doubtful.

[Crazyrcflier]

I looked harder, scraped it with my knife, and it turned yellow under the gray coating. It is really soft brass.

Oh well it was free and I can recycle it with the rest of my brass.

[imashooter2]

melted down the pic frame, any other metal melt under 525?
This did so was wondering if it was true pewter

There are many low temperature alloys. But I can't see any of them being made into a picture frame marked as pewter...