Guilt?

[Neverhome]

Anybody else ever feel a tiny twinge of guilt when you melt down a nice pewter piece?

I'm certain my mother and grandmother are rolling over in their graves every time!

[merlin101]

Nope, not at all.

[Czech_too]

With those pieces that are bent or dented, nope. Did find one piece that actually has the lid, that is in decent shape though, that one will stay as is for now.

[pete501]

My wife picked up a 4.5 qt. pewter pitcher at a yard sale. Weight 2-1/4 lb with no dents. Its my new change bucket. Oh yeah, $2. I have her trained.

[bosterr]

My 10 year award (a clear bottom tankard) from a company I once worked for ended up being fired down range and I never shed a tear!

[brassrat]

I can go into pewter business

[lightman]

I'm not finding pewter like some of you but I would hesitate to melt anything that looked really nice. Plain Jane, nicked or bent, or even modern looking, yeah I would melt it. I would just hate to destroy something that displays a lot of craftsmanship. A guy should check the value on anything really nice, it may be a lot more valuable that a little tin!

[6mm win lee]

I have the normal guilt but I'm getting better. I am like a couple the other guys. If the item is near perfect and has a cool factor then it will sit around gather dust. The other stuff? Let the melting begin! I have a bunch of old pewter plates from the Woodbury Pewter folks in CT. I can buy replacements new to eat from if needed so the scratched, nicked, dented plates have a date with the cast iron.

[William Yanda]

Several times I have offered pewter items on the big internet marketplace, priced at what the pewter would bring in ingots. I can't remember any takers.

[jsizemore]

If it has a form or catalog number, I don't hesitate. Some stuff I can get the foundry price or better for a piece then it gets sold as is. I have found a couple plates from the revolution and civil wars that have a bunch of value that I give as presents. The rest look wonderful as a puddle or flying downrange.

[Scott_In_OKC]

I picked this up yesterday, and I have to admit, it's pretty cool. However, it's still going in the melt pile.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180313/ae13eb5ad7053c6174092bda4a4f0c29.jpg

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[Neverhome]

Nice find and price!

Yeah I'd melt it but definitely feel it as I did.

I got a clean 3ish pounds out of 2 nice pitchers the other day but I overpaid. As long as there's no sentimental value for me and I'm still under the price of straight tin I feel like I'm doing ok

[imashooter2]

Lol! Run through the pictures and hallmarks thread and see some of the stuff I’ve thrown into the pot.

[DerekP Houston]

Count me out for nostalgia... I mean the craftmanship is great and its fun to look at, but I'm all about functional items. Too much stuff already cluttering my house that each has a purpose, I can't stand having stuff just for the sake of stuff to put on shelves. For better or worse it'd end up in the smelting pot for me. From what I can tell lots of people like to buy and sell this stuff but still don't really DO anything with it.

[brass410]

my guilt is soon vanquished with the joy of at last finding the elusive sweet alloy mix that produces a sweet spot in my firearm that causes others to look at the target and say wow you shot that group with that old thing?

[GhostHawk]

I sat rubbing my hands with Glee as I melted down the 6.5 lb score my wife brought home for 11$.

That stuff was cast in a machine, lived a long full life. Now it gets added to a pot of lead and lives again as a shiny cast boolit.

Nope, no guilt here.

Reuse, re purpose, recycle.

Again, and again, and again. Who knows what it will be next.

[RogerDat]

I check prices online if the pieces are "different" or in good shape without dents or damage. Black pewter is almost always going to be older since it indicates a lead / tin alloy. Won't melt those without some investigation. Turns out I have two small plates from late 1700's or early 1800's. I just don't feel right about melting something that is over 100 years old. Then there is the stuff wife likes, that goes into a diversion program for pewter.

Nice pieces I can sometimes sell for more to antique store than they are worth as tin. It is another reason to look up stuff before melting. Some 1/2 pound item that is worth $40 online, will sell to antique store for an easy $20 and is at best $4 worth of tin. No brainer, I got paid $16 to look it up online and stop at a couple antique stores in the area. Plus some nice stuff didn't have to become a puddle to support my casting habit. Win, win, win all the way around.

It helps keep my conscience clear about melting nice stuff that I have accumulated a supply of alloy materials so "need" isn't that great to melt it. I still keep an eye out and actively look for pewter or solder or babbit or type metals such as linotype but I'm not doing without if I decide not to melt it. At this point I think some months I spend more on donuts or $5 pizza for guys at the scrap yard than I spend on lead.

[D Crockett]

no in fact I tell my wife that if she comes out while I am smelting pewter that I will shoot her cat she stays in. she cought me once and it cost me 3 nice pieces that I was going to melt but 3 days later they got melted. I do not even want to think what my grandmother would of said she had lots of it in her house D Crockett

[JMax]

I have so much solder that I do not bother with pewter so there is no guilt. I had my left shoulder replaced in mid January and will be unable to lift more than 10# for a couple of months so it just takes up room in the garage.