Working in pewter

I’m interested in working in pewter. Does anyone have any experience
with it? and possibly a good source for it?

Thanks,
Ed Murphy

Ed,

I have done limited fine pewter castings in investment and hi temp
silicon molds. We bought fine pewter (small amount of Antimony to
give better casting/flow. Great folks if you can get them, but it
has been a number of years since I have contacted them. When I did
the pewter work, they were very helpful. So they would be at least
one source for fine pewter. Lots of casting pewters have a good deal
of lead in them, I would recommend that you do not use these
alloys. Not healthy for you or for your customers…

John Dach
MLCE.net

Old pewter had lead in it, today its a no no. There is a theory that
the fall of the Roman Empire was due the fact they used a lead based
pewter for their drinking vessels, particularly wine, small
quantities of lead leached out, they ingested it and eventually they
started to lose the plot and their Empire!

Modern European casting alloy 94%Tin 1% copper 5% Antimony
Wrought sheet 92% Pewter 2% copper 6% Antimony
Asian pewter 97% Pewter 1% copper 1.5% Antimony

Regards Hamish Bowie

I have been using pewter for about 20 years now for making models.
Great to work with… easy to carve and finish and mold. Super easy
to cast with the right equipment.

Source for Pewter that I use is Contenti.

http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep7zq8

Great people to work with also.

You do need to keep your work space clean if you are going to be
using precious metals on the same bench. Pewter will contaminate
your metals. I use the lead free pewters and solders. For a flux get
the water soluble ones they clean up much easier with a little warm
water.

You can hammer it out much more then other metals so you do not need
to anneal it while working with it…

You need to use a elect soldering iron or a soft broad flame torch
like one of those propane hand held torches that you can refill…
Contenti sells them for about $40 but are a worth while investment. I
do love working with it. You can cast it into rubber molds and if
need be can make molds that are gravity cast able. I have a complete
pewter shop where I make my models at as well as fishing lures :-)(
have to keep my priorities in line)

Vernon Wilson