Pewter questions

[kendall yates]

My wife was cleaning out boxes of junk and had a few pewter dishes and a bowl type thing. What is pewter made up of? Is it easy to melt down into ingots? Does it have any value or just toss it? Thanks

[runfiverun]

it should be mostly tin.
if it is marked B.M. somewhere it is nearly 100%.
it is at least 60% minimum and more likely 80+%

[docone31]

I have found, an awful lot of pewter is Zilloy. A zinc alloy. Not so good for casting. The older stuff is tin, most of the newer stuff I got was zinc.

[Tom Herman]

I have found, an awful lot of pewter is Zilloy. A zinc alloy. Not so good for casting. The older stuff is tin, most of the newer stuff I got was zinc.

OK, now you've got me wondering: How do you tell teh difference between old Pewter and the more modern Zilloy?
Do you look for hallmarks, is there a scratch test, is there a slightly different look or feel?

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[Gar]

If it's marked pewter, it must contain a minimum of 85% tin, with modern pewter containing a minimum of 90%. Pewter will bend easily where as zinc alloy will not. Also the zinc stuff will 'ring' when you drop it and are usually shiny. Watch out for people selling ‘pewter’ plates and such on the internet. If it isn’t stamped as pewter, chances are good it’s zinc alloy.

Gar

[softpoint]

Docone is right, I bought some "pewter " at a pawn shop. wasn't cheap, but I figgered it'd be cheaper than tin. Took one of the legs off a little stand for a vase and threw it in my nearly full pot of ww alloy. Figgered it might make boolits fill out a little better. That pot of alloy is now a door stop in a coffee can in my shop. It turned the whole pot to a mush about the consistency of cooked cream of wheat.
Beautiful swirls of colors on top of the melt. Rcbs pot turned all the way up. Still mush. Had to dump the pot out into the can, because there was no way that stuff was coming out the bottom spout. I,too would like to know how to tell if it is real pewter.

[docone31]

Way back when, I worked for a lamp shop that made 1700s reproductions. It was fun, I learned a lot. However, the main "pewter" we had was called Zilloy. It could be spun, polished, melted and cast. It had to be cast hot, but had a fairly low melting point!
Softpoint, if you can remelt that coffee can full of alloy, and get it into a cast iron pan, on the kitchen stove you can get it hot enough to "layer".
Bring it up to full heat, let it melt, and sit. Flux it with sawdust, or Kitty Litter. Keep the heat on and wait. The zinc will float to the top layer, and it can be culled with a spoon. It will look like oatmeal. If it was mixed with pure lead, it won't mix well. It will be more of a colloid than alloy.
Zilloy could be scratched with a fingernail, and could be bent easily. If it was dropped, it sounded just like lead. It did not behave like zinc. It was also safe for drinking. It also polishes like silver.
As far as marking, I forget what part of the piece had to be tin based. It did not have to be the entire piece. If memory serves me, and I have been wrong before, only the part that was marked had to be tin based!
Obviously, some manufacturers will not compromise anything. It will be what it says it is. Others, you take chances.
With melting "pewter", I do reccomend not putting it in an alloy you use for casting untill you are sure it is tin based. Zilloy is lighter than pewter however. One way to tell, if it has a polished part, it takes on a silvery polish, rather than shiney lead polish. Almost a chrome shine, rather than fresh cut lead.

[windrider919]

No, don't use it. Instead send it to one of us and we will test it for you and report back if it was pewter or otherwise. You should not have to endure such disappointment so early in your casting career. We old casters have tough hides and can bear just about anything.

And just to help you out I won't charge you my labor as I cast bullets out of your unknown and possibly bad material. Won't charge you for shooting it either, so how about that for fellowship! I will expect you to pay for shipping it to me however. Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

[IMISCHA]

Ok so i have a business making jewelry and other novelty items and i majorily use firemountaingems.com. I notice they have more of this zilloy "pewter" than anything else. I refuse to use this material as some people could have skin allgergies with it. So what's the deal with this new "pewter" and why is it so popular all of a sudden?

[willie_pete]

Ok so i have a business making jewelry and other novelty items and i majorily use firemountaingems.com. I notice they have more of this zilloy "pewter" than anything else. I refuse to use this material as some people could have skin allgergies with it. So what's the deal with this new "pewter" and why is it so popular all of a sudden?

Zinc is about 1/4 the cost of tin. I am sure it is a cost issue.

WP

[imashooter2]

I've never had any difficulty telling the difference between zinc / aluminum alloys and real pewter. Try this link. Look at the forms and features. Check for hallmarks. Happy hunting...

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-and-hallmarks

[Garyshome]

Pewter or Tin [like I call it] has a very low melting point , even lower then lead. Just heat it up with a torch if it starts to melt real fast it's pewter.

[tuckerdog]

real pewter is an alloy of tin and antimony, mostly tin. cheap pewter can be most anything. as stated a bunch of the cheap stuff has a good bit of zinc

[303Guy]

Welcome aboard IMISCHA

Pewter is a malleable metal alloy, traditionally 85–99% tin, with the remainder consisting of copper, antimony, bismuth and sometimes, less commonly today, lead.

If one buys it from the recyclers it is way cheaper than new tin.

[captaint]

Go to the excellent thread started by is2. Something about pewter hallmarks. i think it's in the lead and alloys section. Excellent. Should be a sticky.
Mike

[imashooter2]

Go to the excellent thread started by is2. Something about pewter hallmarks. i think it's in the lead and alloys section. Excellent. Should be a sticky.
Mike

Thanks for the kind words Mike. I linked that thread in my response above.

[captaint]

Well, it should. And you're welcome.
Mike

[liljohnnie]

Pewter is a malleable metal alloy, traditionally 85–99% tin, with the remainder consisting of copper, antimony, bismuth and sometimes, less commonly today, lead. Silver is also sometimes used. Copper and antimony act as hardeners while lead is common in the lower grades of pewter, which have a bluish tint. It has a low melting point, around 170–230 °C (338–446 °F), depending on the exact mixture of metals.[1] The word pewter is likely a variation of the word spelter, a term for zinc alloys (originally a colloquial name for zinc).

This comes directly from Wikipedia. I think the real key for casters is melting point. The melting point for Zinc is above 780 degrees whereas pewter melts at a relatively low temp. Just bring your pot to 600/650 and float a small piece of the unknown "pewter" on top. My 2 cents.

[MTtimberline]

What would the average price of pewter be that could be used to determine a good buy or not?

[imashooter2]

A lot depends on how much you have and what your prospects are to get more.

Virgin tin sells for $19 a pound. Scrap pewter sells for $45 for 5 lbs delivered on a regular basis in our Swappin and Sellin section. Scrap solder varies depending on alloy, but generally works out about the same tin cost.