Tin and Whiskey

[Ateam]

Another source for tin!
So my wife gave me a bottle of Eagle Rare whiskey for Christmas, and I got around to opening it last night. I was peeling off the foil that keeps the corked top, and I though, "gee this is a little heavy and malleable to be aluminum..." So I peeled it all off and wadded it up and hefted it, definitely heavier than aluminum. I then struck a match and it slumped right away. I am starting to get a little excited, and my wife is giving me the "you're crazy" look. Whiskey tumbler forgotten, I head out to the shop and hit the wad with a torch and end up with 87grn lump of tin. This AM I emailed buffalo trace, the maker or eagle rare, and they confirmed it was pure tin. Most expensive pot sweetener out there, but tasty too....

[Peregrine]

The illness, I know it well...

[Geezer in NH]

So I gotta ask how was the whiskey? Neat source of tin by the way.

[Jniedbalski]

Eagle rare is one of my favorite whiskeys. Years ago it wasent that expensive 24 to 26$ or so. Now it’s 37$ 38$ now so I only buy it once about every two years. Good stuff

[Iron369]

I drink tons of eagle rate. I would have never thought about the foil being tin.

[lightman]

Thats cool! The wax on Makers Mart and some Craft beer bottles makes pretty good flux too.

[Ateam]

The Eagle Rare is great, I like it a lot. I was shopping with her when she bought it, and I think it was only $22 or so for 750ml, I may be dis-remembering though.

I was really surprised that it was actually tin in this day and age of cost cutting, seems like it would be an easy way to make a few more cents (use aluminum) and no one would be the wiser, glad they don't.


edit: SWMBO says it was $32 a bottle

[kevin c]

A fellow shooter at my club helps out at a winery at the end of the product line (bottle final prep and packaging). While most of the capsule covers over the corks are now made of plastic, some premium wines still use tin. He saved up the discards and basically gave me three pounds of tin, with the promise of more. I haven't had them formally analyzed, but they melted in a pot of pewter just above liquidus. So, I don't partake, but at least that part of a fine bottle of wine is of interest to me...

[GregLaROCHE]

I started saving those type of wrappers, but finally got discouraged. Some bottles have a lot, but the wine bottles I was getting it from, didn’t yeald much. Its a lot easier to find pewter at flee markets or junk shops. It would be different if I had a friend giving me three pounds at a time.

[Outpost75]

Reminds me of a favorite story by Frank Marshall.

He claimed that using empty Preparation H tubes to flux always shrunk his groups.

[Conditor22]

▲▲▲ that's bad LOL ▲▲▲

Now you have a reloading related excuse to buy whiskey.

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

I like that one!

[Hossfly]

May have to try preparation “H” that’s a good one.

[clintsfolly]

Got a bucketful of WW one time that had a small candy tin of small white thin paper and smelly green stuff. Dumped it all in the melt for flux and that whole batch of bullet shot high!

[Don Purcell]

Guess I picked a bad time to quit drinking! (Loyd Bridges)

[higgins]

I have a few metal tubes of stuff like grease. It's probably from the 70s, think they would be made of tin?

[BD]

Maker's Mark used to use red carnauba wax as the cork sealant. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. It's some kind of plastic stuff now.

[dondiego]

Maker's Mark used to use red carnauba wax as the cork sealant. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. It's some kind of plastic stuff now.

Dang! Do you know when they switched?

[RogerDat]

With good whiskey bottle in front of you and you are thinking about tin alloy from the foil and wax seal for lube? People need to get a grip, and a rocks glass without the wet cold stuff in it to mess up the brown stuff so they can properly contemplate what is important. I fully expect to be reading of bullet caster arrested when found wondering drunk in parking lot looking for Wheel Weights clutching a piece of foil from a half empty whiskey bottle in one hand. Sigh it's sad is what it is.

Next time buy the $12 whiskey and a roll of solder. Quality brown liquor is just wasted on some folks.

That said it is good to know some have honed their tin detection skills to the point where they catch that the foil is tin. Bet they buy very little "fake" pewter at thrift stores or garage sales.

[lightman]

I've picked up a wheel weight or two in the parking lot of my favorite bottle shop!