[Source] Pewter sheet

Hello, I am looking for a supplier for pewter sheet for raising
holloware. Does anyone know if this exists or do I have to make my
own? Also any info on soldering and joining tips would be helpfull.
Thanks in advance.

Hi Michael,

MASSC (Metal Arts Society of Southern California) just had a
fantastic workshop with pewter artist and expert, Lisa Slovis
Mandel. We came away with a small vase, a serving spoon (cast and
fabricated) and many cast pins, buttons and pendants. It’s not
precious, but it is lovely, lead free, non-corrosive and food safe.
Compare pewter at approx. $1.81/oz. to Sterling at approx. $27+/oz. -
yikes!! For sheet metal and lead-free solder contact Stellar
Technical Products in Long Beach, CA - 310/660-0140. For Supersafe
Flux contact H & N Electronics in California City, CA - 760/373-8033.

Hope that
helps, Randi Mac

Does anyone know of a supplier that carries 12 x 12 sheets of Pewter,
or possibly even 6 x 24? Since silver’s still insane, I’ve started
working with pewter (because nickle is evil). I’ve discovered I quite
raising with pewter but I’ve run into a snag with trying to raise
larger vessels- so far, the only source I’ve found for sheet is
Contentti & the biggest they carry is 6 x 12.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Sharon,
Grad Student, Metalsmith, Chaos Magnet

Hi Sharon,

I get/used to get mine from Lehigh metals in Providence.

They had 12x12’s in thicknesses up to 1/8".

So far as I know, they’re still around, but I haven’t ordered in a
couple of years. Google makes it look like they’re still there.

Regards,
Brian Meek.

If no one knows of a supplier of larger sheet, why not pour your
own? Heck, you can melt pewter on a kitchen stove.

You can use an extra heavy duty sheet cake pan, they’re 12 or 13
gauge. Full sheet pans are 18" x 26". Don’t get a non-stick one. The
fiddliest part, I imagine, would be making the pan perfectly level in
preparation for the pour.

Level the pan, preheat it, oil it or spray with silicone release,
melt the pewter in an iron casting ladle, then pour carefully.

I don’t know where you’re at school, but it’s the kind of project
that many silversmithing teachers might enjoy. You could start with a
quarter sheet pan, 9" x 13", to get the hang of it.

Just a notion.

Elliot
Elliot Nesterman

Making my own sheet is kind of out of the question at the size I
want. For one, I’m pretty sure my landlord would not be too keen on
me casting in my apartment. Second, I don’t have the equipment to
roll anything wider than 4 inches-- and that’s dependent on my prof
letting me use the school’s studio’s rolling mill. As it stands, I’m
required to keep my pewter back in my private studio so there’s no
contamination issues.

Sharon

A couple of thoughts.

Your landlord won’t care about melting a little pewter. The stuff
melts at about 600 degrees F. That’s just a bit hotter than your
oven. But you can melt with a torch in your studio. And pewter these
days is lead free, so you don’t have that to worry about.

You shouldn’t have to roll out the sheet at all. Liquids are self
leveling, so once you have determined how much metal you need to get
a given thickness over a given area the pour should give you a pretty
flat and even sheet. Any irregularities would be hammered out in the
raising anyway. Remember, people were making raised hollow ware long
before the rolling mill was invented.

A little experimentation would be worthwhile, I think. Take a bunch
of your offcuts and see if you can pour a sheet into a small baking
pan. You might be surprised at how successful the process will be,
and how much easier than you thought. All you’ve got to lose is the
price of a ladle and a pan.

One difficulty that occurs to me is that the surface tension of the
molten pewter may not allow it to flow into a sheet as thin as you
want. But I think a test pour would show whether that will be a
problem or not.

Elliot

You’ve come across a problem I have with custom bronze alloys. In
that the maximum width is determined by jewellery rolling mills. If
you are clever you can end up with very long strips, but the width
will still be an issue.

The only methods you could employ to solve the problem are :-

  1. Hammer the sheet by hand

  2. Make a rolling mill that will allow you to make wider sheet

  3. Find a company that has an industrial sheet rolling mill, and
    commission them to roll your sheet.

Maybe there are other methods or services, but I can’t think of any.

Regards Charles A.

Honestly? The biggest issue is that I don’t really want to roll out
sheet at all. I’m a grad student with a full time assistanceship-
teaching one section of the Metals 1 class & working for the
University’s Art Collections program setting up shows on campus-
both of which take up much more time than the hours on my schedule.
And I’m perpetually behind schedule with making work so I’d really
rather put my time into something more productive, like actually
raising & fabricating my pieces. It makes my Prof happy when I
actually get projects completed. It makes me happy, too. So I’d
really rather just find somewhere I can purchase what I need.

Sharon,
Metalsmith, Frazzled TA, Chaos Magnet

Sharon,

A search in the archives found Stellar Technical in Los Angeles that
currently has a 12 x 24 x.051" (4 lb.) sheet.

Pam
Newburyport, MA

One difficulty that occurs to me is that the surface tension of
the molten pewter may not allow it to flow into a sheet as thin as
you want. 

Yeah. I actually did try this, not just think about it. You are
misleading the original questioner by guessing about something that
you have not done. The puddle was very thick, maybe 5 to 10 mm, if I
remember right. This is almost certainly not the kind of “sheet”
which is being sought. Next time I would try pouring it into a sheet
ingot mold, but that would be quite small.

M’lou Brubaker
Minnesota, USA
http://www.craftswomen.com/M’louBrubaker

A good source for pewter jewelry and pewter sheet is High Concepts,
located in Boulder, Colorado.

High Concepts
Eric Sherman
5375 Western Ave. Ste. D
Boulder, CO | 888 884 7090

Cindy Lichfield
clouddome.com

Just a quick search on the net

http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/1d6

I’m sure there are other places.
Regards Charles A.

I have not followed this but if you are looking for pewter sheets,
Conetti in the northeast US sells them in various sizes. I used them
in prototype design work. They are easy to saw, cut, carve, about
any thing you could imagine, then mold to make castable jewelry
models.

Carl

Hi Sharon,

OK, call this number: 401-941-7361. That’s Lehigh metals, they’re in
Providence. I just called them to make sure they’re still around, and
still stock pewter sheet, and yes, they are, and yes they do. Problem
solved.

Enjoy,
Brian.

Hi Sharon,

There is a company called B&J Manufacturing in Taunton MA. they
still do a lot of manufacturing with pewter. I would give them a call
and ask to see where they get their sheet from. It is a smaller
family run bussiness and they are usually really friendly and
helpful. Hope this helps.

Joost

Try Contenti Company they specialize in pewter and sell sheet in
what ever gauge you want.

Hope this helps.
Vernon Wilson

Life seems to work in interesting ways. Back in the 90’s, the high
school I graduated from, long ago, was doing some cleaning out and I
ended up with a large selection of pewter sheet, from the 60’s and
70’s. Luckily in time, I took a pewtersmithing workshop and had all
the pewter I needed to work. Fast forward to this year, I went to an
estate sale, and ended up with a ton of 50’s and early 60’s pewter
sheet and discs in as sort gauges and sizes. I will not have to buy
pewter for probably another decade or two. I still haven’t set up a
separate bench, away from my usual bench to get back to pewter.
However, if I ever need more pewter, there’s always Contenti in RI.
Joy who wonders if she’ll ever get work done for the holiday season.