Whats the deal with Pewter?

[CrappieHappy]

Pewter for Jigheads?

 

[Hawnjigs]

I know craftsmen pour toys soldiers and adornments with the stuff, but I found it difficult to pour jigheads with my pot & ladle setup. And, the typical 92-8 stuff is REALLY hard and larger casting sprues are VERY difficult to "trim" off. Nonetheless, it's a good source of tin to alloy with lead, and I've used a fair amount of scrap for that purpose.

 

[toadfrog]

Pewter is an enviornmental craze that got kicked off by the government trying to get rid of lead so they could eventually get rid of our guns . Like Hawn said it's somewhat of a pain to work with and it's lighter than lead . The cost is high and scrap is hard to find . Lead is said to be harmful to fish . In my neck of the woods the most harmful thing in the water that damages the entire life cycle is waste from chicken processing plants . Chicken is a highly desired food source so there is a continual battle that goes over that .

 

[CrappieHappy]

Thanks Keith/ Brent, I came across a few mugs, and was curious.

 

[Bucho]

Lead bans are becoming a bit of a fashion among governments over here, too. England has just banned small angling leads under an oz or so, Denmark is 100% lead free by law, and in Germany it´s lead free duck hunting ammo only within 400 yards from open water.

Messing with tin alloys can get you problems with low melting points. When curing powderpaint, your jigs should be covered from direct heat comming from the glowing parts in your oven. Spoiled more than one lot this way, sucks to see your work bulged out or even dropped out of its paint.

Aaah, and don´t even try using that stuff in a wobble jig mold. 100% pure, soft tin only!

 

[Hawnjigs]

Trouble with unmarked scrap pewter is no guarantee of lead free. That pitcher(?)-mug set should by common sense be lead free but being of guessing SE Asia or India mfg. yah never know. If it is indeed standard 92%(tin)-8%(antimony+copper) pewter you could try making some jigging slabs which would benefit from the light weight shiny high tin content. But, mold cavity fill out might be a problem and if they do pour OK expect some challenges getting of the sprue. Myself, I like 4-5% tin alloyed into my soft lead and scrap pewter is fine for that.

 

[CrappieHappy]

Thanks Keith, so you just add some scrap pewter into your lead mix when pouring...

 

[Hawnjigs]

I prefer pre-made 1# lead alloy ingots available to save time when pouring, but having pewter in small castings available for add-in alloying works. Different sizes of sinkers are handy, just don't let the kids get their hands on em cuz pewter is EXPENSIVE at over $1 per OZ.
http://www.rotometals.com/Pewter-Alloys-s/23.htm

BTW, "pewter" is a very loose definition often referring to appearance rather than metals composition. If your mug set doesn't melt it might be aluminum. Been there done that.

 

[CrappieHappy]

Thanks Keith, looks like some is Armentale, and some german pewter

 

[Hawnjigs]

Genuine Wilton Armentale is an ALUMINUM alloy. Oh boy, you're gonna have fun, like when I cut up an Armentale plate to fit in my melt pot. After enuf pewter has gone thru your hands its possible to distinguish real pewter vs. aluminum by relative weight since tin is more than double aluminum weight density. In my (limited)experience real pewter tends to be ornate antique or fairly modern plain functional SE Asian mfg. Pewter should always be checked for collectible value before melting as scrap.