First pewter score

[brewer12345]

Small, but probably the start of future grubbing. I was in Goodwill for something else and happened to spy a rather nice looking tankard. I looked it over and saw a hallmark that said pewter and made in England, so I figured it was the real deal. No glass bottom and reasonably weighty for its size. The tag said 4 bucks, which was a little iffy on a per pound basis, but I figured if nothing else it is nice to look at. When I looked at it from the top it was bent into an oval at the rim, so I got it for 2 bucks. Got it home and it weighs 18.5 ounces, which I think is pretty good for the money.

I assume it would be a bad idea to melt this down in my bottom pour pot? I do not smelt lead, so I guess if I plan to melt up some pewter once I accumulate enough to bother doing so I will need a cast iron pot and a ladle? Does pewter need fluxing? If so, what should I use? I normally use beeswax when casting.

[William Yanda]

Pewter melts at around 450 deg. I melt in a saucepan, a cheap stainless steel one from Sally Ann's. But I find a 1 Qt is easier to control, pouring from than a 2 Qt. Pewter is lighter than lead, but 2 quarts is heavy to control, pouring into molds. Most of the trash I find comes from gaskets on the glass bottom mugs, charred stickers and tape and remnants of weighting in candlesticks. A little wax does well.

[MyFlatline]

I base my Pewter prices on this, plumbers solder costs me $21.00 per pound for work, so if I can get out at $1 per pound on pewter, I'm happy..

[brewer12345]

I base my Pewter prices on this, plumbers solder costs me $21.00 per pound for work, so if I can get out at $1 per pound on pewter, I'm happy..

What percentage of pewter is typically tin? Over 80%? Not hard to back into what to pay for pewter vs. buying tin from Rotometals, buying scrap ingots from online sellers, etc.

[MyFlatline]

What percentage of pewter is typically tin? Over 80%? Not hard to back into what to pay for pewter vs. buying tin from Rotometals, buying scrap ingots from online sellers, etc.

Pewter is a malleable metal alloy. It is traditionally composed of 85–99% tin, mixed with copper, antimony, bismuth, and sometimes lead, although the use of lead is less common today. Silver is also sometimes used. Copper and antimony act as hardeners while lead is more common in the lower grades of pewter,

From a quick search, maybe it's the copper that makes me like it so much..

[Beagle333]

You don't "have" to smelt it. If you have something that is big and bulky and hard to measure for adding to the pot, it's easier to melt it into small ingots or strips or even bullets that you can add to the pot incrementally as needed. I often just take a pair of sidecutters or tin snips and cut my tankards and plates and such into pieces or strips and weigh them and mark them with a sharpie. Then I just drop a piece or two in the pot every time I add lead. There are a few impurities that would flux out if you melted a whole pot of the stuff, but I haven't seen enough to make me wary of contaminating a pot of lead, not with only an ounce or two at a time going in there.

[jsizemore]

Sounds like Sheffield pewter. 18.5 ounces is pretty heavy so it probably has a large, strong handle. You'll probably be in the 95-97% tin with the biggest remainder being copper and a lesser amount of antimony. Flux with beeswax or paraffin. A saucepan and tablespoon will work fine for the amount you got. You could just cut it with some sheet metal snips and flux while you alloy your lead.

Keep up the hunt.

[dbosman]

As others have mentioned, just cut, weigh, and mark the pieces for weight. That is a lot faster then rendering down - when you're not set up for it.

[brewer12345]

Well, that is a lot better than I expected. Guess I will go buy a pair of snips and just chop it up. A shame, considering how nice the mug is, but the thing has been dropped/abused so I guess it is just sweetener now.

[jsizemore]

Chisel and hammer will work too.

[brewer12345]

I think I may have caught some sort of mental disease here. After a cleaning at the dentist I stopped at a thrift store a block away. A little nosing around yielded a big, heavy platter hallmarked "Askvall Brug Stopt Tinn." A bit of googling showed that this is from a Norwegian pewter producer that claims to make lead free pewter. $6 later I took home my prize. This sucker is almost 6 pounds, so I think I did OK. How to bust it up is another question, given how thick and heavy it is.

What happens if I hit something like this with a sledge hammer? Bend or break?

[Grmps]

A bench vise is good for "re-sizing/down-sizing pewter BUT a small sledgehammer is more fun.
IF you reform/ compact the pewter when you get it, others are less likely to think it's pretty and want it.

[brewer12345]

Heh, ain't nothing pretty about this thing. Tarnished, scraped, and heavy. No qualms whatsoever about melting this thing down.