Pewter Ingots

[Old Ranger]

I've been a pewter hunter for about a year. The last batch of ingots I poured are a gold color and have a course grain pattern. These ingots were poured from food ware hallmarked pieces. I melted down about 15 lbs in my 20 lb Lee pot and had the temperature set at 7. Previously poured ingots were probably not as hot and were silver colored with fine grain structure. I'm assuming gold color and course structure was tin oxide on surface because of high temperature??

[fryboy]

sounds plausible enough , some tin no matter the temp i pour it at seems gold tinted , there's also several grades of various "food grade" pewter , this also can affect the color , if stamped with a grade ( much like silver eg;92 or 95) one can kind of sort it but i usually figure that it's at a minimum of 90 % tin , the balance usually antimony or copper to give it strength/durability , usually it's 95%-ish so my 90% figure gives me a lil cushion so to speak

[jsizemore]

Most likely. 7 means nothing on your Lee pot. If you get a thermometer your temp needs to be 450-460*F.

[imashooter2]

If I let my ingot mold get too hot, the ingots cool with that coarser texture. The texture has no effect on end use.

[lwknight]

That course texture just lets you know that at least some antimony is in it.
My pewter ingots always get a wheat straw color no matter what I do unless casting into a bullet mold.