To whoever is lurking around ebay in the last couple months buying up pewter and paying way more than its worth. Think about what you're doing.
Those sellers pay attention to prices just like we do. When they see stuff sell for more than what they're asking on theirs, what do you think they're going to do with their own pricing? For Pete's sake, you're shooting yourself in foot and the rest of us too.
If people would just stop panic buying everything they see prices all across the board would come down, and that includes even pewter bud vases and other silly stuff.
What with not being able to weigh or examine the item (descriptions can be inaccurate), costs like shipping, and the fact that the asking price reflects the perceived value of the object, not that of its metal content, I haven’t been able to convince myself to buy second hand pewter on line.
And you are not getting pure tin which you can buy at places like Rotometals and know for sure what you got. You can buy pure tin for 28.00 lb. and that pound will do a lot more than pewter alloy. One pound will alloy a LOT of lead. 10lbs. of antimonial lead, 5 lbs of pure lead and .5 lbs of tine give a very balanced 15.5 lbs. of 12.5 BHN lead. Enough to make 543 200gr boolits.
And if you buy 4 lbs. you will get free shipping over 100.00! That knocks at least 20 bucks off of the total and brings the price down to 23.00 lb.
And when you are only adding a few percent of something the math gets even less significant. Even though pewter is around 90% tin by the books I just treat it as a pure bar of 0.999 pure tin. Adding 2% of something 90% pure means your alloy is wrong by 0.2% tin. Does anyone think this will matter? And pewter has antimony so for hardness the difference is even less significant.
Same goes for Rotometals high antimony bars. Just buy some monotype for $2 a pound off of Ebay and it already has a good amount of tin already in it.
If you are at 90% then the difference is negligible, but how do you know you have 90% without testing? And as has been said, the price is going up on pewter so is it still worth it?
All this math is making my head hurt.
Some people believe exact alloys are important and they are willing to pay for them. Others believe ballpark is just fine and they try to save a buck where they can. Still others believe cost is king and just want the cheapest that will work for their application.
It’s a big wide world. To each their own.
”We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, yet they are still lying.” –Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
My Straight Shooters thread:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...raight-shooter
The Pewter Pictures and Hallmarks thread:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-and-hallmarks
I saw tin ingots at rotometals for $19 per pound a few days ago. Anyone want to split up a 1000 pound pallet?
What the hell would anyone do with 500 pounds of $19 a pound tin!?!?
”We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, yet they are still lying.” –Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
My Straight Shooters thread:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...raight-shooter
The Pewter Pictures and Hallmarks thread:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-and-hallmarks
What the hell would anyone do with 50 pounds of $19 a pound tin!?!?
”We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, yet they are still lying.” –Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
My Straight Shooters thread:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...raight-shooter
The Pewter Pictures and Hallmarks thread:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-and-hallmarks
If you get a good price you hold it for a while and sell at a profit. Just like all the hoarders are doing with primers and powder.
The best supply of tin is yard sales. I found three rolls of 50-50 solder for $2 a roll. One roll had some solder missing but it was still a bargain. Also if you are buying scrap lead water pipe the joints are 50~70% tin. The old timers used tin to make the whipped joints of lead pipe because the tin melted at a lower temperature than the lead. Cut the joints out and use em to alloy your bullet lead.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |