Best source for clean pewter? Quality stuff!

[astrawn]

Anywhere in the US?

Thanks!

Andrew

[MrWolf]

Curious also. I have never found pewter like some folks have.

[JimB..]

Most of mine has come from thrift shops and craigslist. Haven’t seen much the past 12 mo.

[kevin c]

Clean, quality pewter in quantity right now? Rotometals sells ingots of it, but it will cost you. Second hand items made of pewter are variable in price and availability, but can be scrounged on line and in thrifts, estate sales, and auction houses (I've found it in all the above, but generally don't buy on line: shipping jacks the price way up). There does seem to be big differences in regional availability.

Don't forget that solder has tin too. Though new is a very pricey way to go, second hand can be very cheap.

[JM7.7x58]

You just got to get out there and look for it. I figure that I pay between $3.00 to $5.00 per pound in the thrift stores. Most days I find one or two pieces, sometimes none. I melt it down in 20 to 30 pound batches. Most of it is culinary “modern” post WWII stuff that is gonna be 95% tin. I have found some older grey candle sticks that I suspect had some lead in them. All of it is hallmarked.

All you need to know is in this sticky.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-and-hallmarks

[dbosman]

I've stopped thrift shopping due to triple risk for Covid (old, fat, diabetic) but last trip I found two pieces of pewter at each of two thrift stores. I passed and left them there for you guys.
I've bought about a hundred pounds in the last several years. I believe that once you learn to recognize it, you'll find you simply overlooked it.

[jsizemore]

Are you looking for pewter cast as ingots or pewter items that haven't been melted?

[CastingFool]

Never seen pewter cast into ingots for sale. How could you be sure it is pewter? I buy pewter items that show the trade mark. The more dinged up the better. I have passed up pieces that I felt were priced too high to melt.

[imashooter2]

In general, low cost pewter stashes are built the same way as low cost lead stashes... years of endless search and scrounging.

For those that gotta have it now, trade dollars for your time. Rotometals or eBay buy it now. For lower cost, there is little downside to lowballing an endless stream of pewter auctions on eBay waiting for one to come home.

[imashooter2]

Never seen pewter cast into ingots for sale. How could you be sure it is pewter? I buy pewter items that show the trade mark. The more dinged up the better. I have passed up pieces that I felt were priced too high to melt.

I sold over 600 pounds here in ingots. Some folks are still willing to take a chance on established members when they say what something is.

[interior_mike]

Auctions just enter a search. Came across a stack of plates the other day but the fight was on for those. In the end this was 1/2 the price what tin solder runs me. Pewter gets heavily oxidized and greys. Chunks scrap off with a pocket knife

[Charlie Horse]

Goodwill and yard sales are good sources of pewter.

I thought pewter had too much copper in it to be of interest to bullet casters. Am I wrong?

[dondiego]

Goodwill and yard sales are good sources of pewter.

I thought pewter had too much copper in it to be of interest to bullet casters. Am I wrong?

Pewter is great for it's tin content. Copper is not a problem.

[Multra]

Goodwill is where I found mine.

[Conditor22]

You could put a "want to buy" ad on craigslist. Something like [ junk pewter must be marked pewter or Zinn XX per pound]. The only problem is many will ask what you want it for and not sell if they find out your casting boolits even if you only target shoot ( I refuse to lie to get something).

I will say I want to smelt it and use it for casting shapes

[RogerDat]

I also say in some cases that I'm going to melt it down into ingots to be recast. I just leave bullets out of it. After all I might decide to make jewelry or something. At scrap yards I tell them not fishing weight, bullets. Then I explain some of the items I'm looking for. Helps to have the guys in the yard aware that you want printing letters, or xray shielding. Got a couple of nice ladles that way. Along with assorted lead scores.

You do have to be a regular shopper at local thrift and goodwill stores. Like grandma said. Steady licks whip the devil. You have to go there regularly. Estate sales can be good but higher priced. Yard sales seem to be the occasional tiny little piece I find or the major big box take it all for a deal priced super score that I read about here. It is regional to some extent. More common in the northern midwest and new England states, have heard several members from southern states comment on the lack of availability.

I have sold pewter from time to time. I only use marked pewter items to cast into pewter ingots. I'm not going to store a bunch of dishes and candle sticks on my tin shelves. I do however want to know what I have in my ingots for my own alloy making. Stuff such as "white metal" or items that I'm pretty sure are pewter don't go into the pewter ingots. I collect that stuff, melt into large ingot and get it tested. It does tend to have tin content that is in the 80's but since pewter ingots are in the 90% range I don't mix the two. I tend to collect big batches (couple of boxes worth) of known pewter, melt them into a block and get it tested. I had white metal slip into the 70's for tin percentage but since I probably bought it as scrap lead or for cheap it is still a good deal for my uses.

Copper is a good thing. Makes the alloy more malleable, less prone to breaking into pieces. Especially useful in hunting bullets so they stay in one piece when hitting bone and for hollow points so they mushroom without shredding into little pieces. Mass carries the force that allows for penetration. Little pieces don't penetrate.

If someone is willing to sell their own stash it is probably going to be good stuff. Most folks here don't want to have a bad reputation for the little bit of money one can make from selling a few pounds of pewter. Or if they have a big score of pewter to sell they don't want a bad reputation to prevent selling it quickly, easily, and for a good price. On eBay? I would be more skeptical of buying pewter in ingot form. Heck on eBay they sell those "pewtex" plates of praying hands as pewter, even though pewtex is an aluminum alloy, same with "Mexican Pewter" it isn't pewter but on eBay it gets sold as pewter.

People say not worth buying unless it comes out to $3 or so a pound. With a larger purchase I think that makes more sense than for a single light item. If I buy a 1/4 pound item and pay a couple of bucks for it I figure the tin is still a better price than commercial. I do that less now that I have a stash that lets me be a bit more picky but building up that stash I did pay more than a "good" price for some items, and others I got for a "deal" price. It averages out.

Note the scale in the picture below takes batteries so I can weigh items in store. One salvation army store in area tends to price using eBay asking prices for similar items. Too high priced unless the item is heavy but not in good shape. They want $5 for that 1/4 pound candle stick and that is too much for me. And frankly you can buy it in the forum for around $8 a pound so use that as a guide. If you can buy it here for $8 then why pay more than that in a thrift store? The other thing is 5 lbs. of pewter will make a lot of lead into a good 2% alloy. One doesn't need a lot to do a lot of alloy.

It took me about 8 years of scrounging to supply my needs for making alloy and provide a surplus that has grown to a hundred pounds. Gives you an idea of what is possible with persistence and time. I figure in retirement when income is lower my hobby needs to be supplied with materials and components that will allow me to continue as long as I am physically able. Leftovers that get sold in my estate just means RogerDat didn't ever run out Any extra I accumulate from being retired and able to hit garage and estate sales will translate into income to help support my hobby/sport/addiction.

5 pounds in ingots from a potter mold, hence the "P" in the center of the ingot. I only make these with known pewter. Other high tin goes into mini muffin tins. Until I have enough to get a sample tested.

[Dimner]

I have some thrift store pewter that I plan to use after I melt it down... but originally I just bought some 1lb 99% tin ingots off ebay for 15$ each. 5 of those and I'm good for something like 500lbs of 1.5% tin+CWW alloy.

[Old School Big Bore]

I bought a good bit from Imashooter in +/- 2 oz ingot-ettes and wish he was still dealing it. A nice amount of them fit into a small FRB.
Ed <><

[jsizemore]

I used to get 8lbs in a SFRB.

[imashooter2]

I bought a good bit from Imashooter in +/- 2 oz ingot-ettes and wish he was still dealing it. A nice amount of them fit into a small FRB.
Ed <><

The bottom sort of fell out of the market for awhile. More and more folks started to scrounge their own (I like to think the pictures and hallmarks thread had something to do with that). A few of us were unofficially sharing the remaining trade when one of the Vendors bought 600+ pounds of ice buckets from a hotel chain and saturated the S&S section.

Anyway, thank you for the kind words! It was a good run while it lasted. I made a few bucks while helping some of our members with low cost tin. No regrets, but no real desire to start the dedicated scrounging again either.