Whats up with this Pewter?

[littlejack]

Hey, all you fellow pewter scroungers.
I decided to smelt and ingotize my pewter items last week. I did not have much,
but I was tripping over things in my small storage/tool shed.
As it turned out, I smelted 10+ pounds of plates bowls small pitchers, etc. Most
all was stamped. There was a couple of items that bent like pewter (crackeled)
and cut like pewter (pocket knife determination) in the Good Will, but was not
stamped. The items marked/stamped reflected 92% tin. Others stamped "etain".
My ingot mould that I use is a small candle holder with three casting cavities.
I cast wafers/coins. These are about 1/8" to 3/16" thick. These are easy for me
to mix with my alloys.
Anyway, I brought 4 of the coins to a scrapper to have them check the alloy, just
for the heck of it. They have the hand held "gun" type gizmo that you hold the
metal in front of. These four pieces checked out with 60% tin and 40% lead, with
the slightest amount of antimony.
Whats up with that, I figured that they would have read a lot more tin than this?
Anyone have any impressions on this?
Jack

[clodhopper]

The makers of those items were saving a few dollars on alloy.

[omgb]

Some higher grade pewter used higher levels of lead. The pewter was then buffed and it looked like silver. If you were smelting hall-marked pewter you may have been melting money.

[jsizemore]

I've found some unmarked pieces that were amateur made. They probably couldn't afford pewter so got some solder drippings from a radiator shop and made their own sheet. Alot of radiator shops use 60/40 for their repairs.

[fryboy]

pewter can be many different alloys some as noted with high lead content ( or even higher lead ) i like to smelt each piece separately ( for safety's sake at least ) if not for food use it's more common than many would think

[omgb]

Some pewter also has small amounts of copper in it as well. I've used it before but I'm not too sure I would now unless I isolated it and made a melt of it that I kept segregated. The idea being that I could never be really sure of what was in it and I'd hate to ruin 20 lbs of lead with copper or some other adulteration.

[mold maker]

The % of copper in pewter is extremely low. Since we only need 1-2% tin added to lead alloy, the copper is of little consequence.
BTW Truck WWs also have some copper in them. Babbitt from bearings also has copper.
If your using only certified alloy, I can see worrying about it, but if using reclaimed metal, you already have contaminates.

[omgb]

The copper typically runs about 1% of the whole so if only 1% were added to lead then you'd be talking about 1% of 1% or what .001%?

[jsizemore]

the copper typically runs about 1% of the whole so if only 1% were added to lead then you'd be talking about 1% of 1% or what .001%?

.01%.

[RidgerunnerAk]

Are folks aware of the directions for removing copper from a melt that were published in the Rifleman in, I think, 1976? I've tried it and it works. I have it somewhere in my files.

[jsizemore]

Are folks aware of the directions for removing copper from a melt that were published in the Rifleman in, I think, 1976? I've tried it and it works. I have it somewhere in my files.

I would enjoy the read. If you post it I'll mark it as a favorite.

I haven't had any problems with my bottom pour pots and using pewter as my tin source.

[littlejack]

Thanks for all the replies fellas. Good information.
I will use the pewter as always, to sweeten my other alloys. It came very cheap. I will not concern myself with the copper, as there is not enough to have a negative on my alloys. There would have to be a great amount to be detrimental, as I have been told somewhere, or have read, that the copper jacketed bullets some of us use for hunting, have copper in them. Of course, thats just hearsay you understand.
Jack