Pewter ID

[Hal A Looyah]

I know about the hallmark thread for vintage and high quality pewter. I've scrounged about 8 lbs of good stuff so far. My question is about commemorative plates and "awards" that are described as pewter or even marketed as pewter. Here in Atlanta there is a tennis organization that has used plates as awards for 30 years. I saw several at the flea market today. They are heavy and darker grey, just like the the old salad plates at the salads bar. And what about the commemorative plates and stuff that were marketed heavily in the 70's and 80's ?

[Iron Mike Golf]

I look for a stamp in the metal saying "pewter". Sticky labels don't cut it. If I could get such plates for a song, I might get one and do a trial melt of it alone, but I wouldn't go whole hog: buy a bunch of plates it add it to a large batch of alloy.

[Longwood]

I know about the hallmark thread for vintage and high quality pewter. I've scrounged about 8 lbs of good stuff so far. My question is about commemorative plates and "awards" that are described as pewter or even marketed as pewter. Here in Atlanta there is a tennis organization that has used plates as awards for 30 years. I saw several at the flea market today. They are heavy and darker grey, just like the the old salad plates at the salads bar. And what about the commemorative plates and stuff that were marketed heavily in the 70's and 80's ?

I tried scrounging for pewter but found so much solder at forty cents a pound at the one stop shop (Recycle yard) that I gave up on driving all over town and paying more for pewter.
I started seriously casting again last year and reading all of the HYPE here about the lead shortage, I began searching for ingredients. Within a very short time, and with practically no effort on my part, I had scrounged about 300 pounds of free wheel weights, even more pure lead, much of which was free, and over 60 pounds of Linotype and solder.
It took a lot fewer stops at the independently owned tire stores and the recycle yard to get all that than it took to thrift stores to get maybe 5 pounds of pewter.
A score like a stack of pewter plates would be incredible.
The best Pewter find I made, was purely accidental when I was looking for a cheap sewing machine motor to power my case trimmer.
That reminds me, a friend told me to stop by and pick up about seventy pounds his dad had. Yep, free,,, and with a cast iron plumbers pot.
Where is this shortage I keep reading about here?

[fryboy]

once you have messed around alot with pewter you'll be able to recognize it much much better , case in point yesterday i picked up a 50 cent bag of misc at a thrift store because in it was a bottle opener with a pewter handle , only a couple ounces and it's not stamped or hallmarked i couldnt see if it was anyways because of it being in the bag , i get it home and it passed the first test ( the nick test ) it then passed the drop of muriatic acid test ( on the nick of course )
the umm old salad plates at the bar are more than likely wilton type ware or "pewterx" ( or several other trade names for misc. alloys usually of a aluminum base ) if you cant carve a sliver off of it like you would a wheel weight it isnt pewter

umm as for luck ..... enjoy it while you have it because it isnt always smiling on our shoulders and many of us dont enjoy it , myself as an example find it hard to find ww's , i'd almost bet that there are several retired folks with more time and longer known contacts that have it sewn up around me ( and basically that's what i usually hear - " we have an old guy who gets all of ours " )

[cajun shooter]

My wife has a huge collection of Wilton Ware and it's not made with any Pewter. It is a combination of 7 different metals with aluminum being the main one. Great stuff to cook and eat with but not for bullets.

[imashooter2]

If they are heavy and thick, then they aren't pewter. Pewter is almost never cast except for figurines. Genuine pewter plates and bowls will be thin through the body with gently curved or rolled edges for rigidity.