Pewter tag?

has anyone ever worked with pewter before? i want to make a sturdy
tag and wondered if pewter might be a good way to go? i honestly have
no idea, so i’m looking for suggestions. ideally i want something
that looks like silver but can get banged up alot. any ideas where i
can get this mystery metal?

thank you
karalee

There are lots of places to get pewter. I get mine from Rio, but if
you need small amounts for the purpose you describe, lead-free
plumber’s solder is basically pure tin with a small amount of
antimony. The modern pewter formula adds a small amount of copper.

It’s easy stuff to work with, I’ve done gravity pour castings in
soapstone and well dried plaster of paris molds doing my melt over a
charcoal brazier.

Ron Charlotte – Gainesville, FL
@Ron_Charlotte1 OR afn03234@afn.org

Pewter is the wrong metal if you want sturdy, and i’m guessing you
feel silver is not sturdy enough. Pewter is no mystery, It’s mostly
Tin, with a bit of copper added to harden it a little, usually. but
it’s still soft as butter compared with silver, and oddly, it does
not work harden (technically, room temperature is above it’s stress
releiving/annealing temp). In fact, the more you work it, the softer
it gets (as the crystal size is reduced with working), the opposite
of the other metals we use in jewelry work.

No, if you’re looking for something sturdier than sterling silver,
and is white or nearly so in color, then choose from, in descending
order of cost, platinum, white golds, titanium, nickel silver (which
is a nickel based brass, containing no silver) or steels of some
sort. Stainless steel is cheap, not impossible to work, and quite
sturdy. Titanium is also very durable and sturdy metal, though you
have to choose which alloy carefully, depending on what you’re
making. some alloys are very hard and difficult to work, while
others are more manageable. It has the distinct advantage that not
only can you use the native grey/white color, but it can be anodized
to a hard durable and brightly colored surface too, if you wish.

heck, even Aluminum is sturdier than pewter. Don’t get me wrong,
pewter is actually wonderful stuff. Easy to work, even in large
sized objects. it welds easily and seamlessly with tiny torches,
letting you do pretty much invisible seams in very large object.
it’s easily shaped, doesn’t work harden, and has a lovely gray color.
But sturdy is just not a word I’d associate with this soft metal.

Hope that helps.
Peter Rowe