Pewter and wood

[danmart77]

I will be finishing up some carving in the next day or so and then I will be pouring pewter to add a sort of "inlay" to the surface of the wood.

You need an ingot of pewter or some old pewter cups from the scrap metal yard to melt down. Propane or MAP will do.

after covering the channels, you drill little gates for the pewter to have Roots. they help the pewter stay in place.

You see the excavation being covered with graphite. This makes the surface slippery and helps to pewter flow out.

you wrap the muzzle with cardboard for the pour

rough out the shape of the muzzle cap. notice the little dots? these are the roots that hold it in place. this is pewter that is very bright

filed and finished out. you can use pewter for a bright shine or plumbers babbit for a dull look or you can mix and match.

after a pour before filing

Very soft and easy to engrave or scratch in some details

this is a muzzle cap that I use on lots of longrifles. I have never gotten tired of it.

Maybe a few new photos when the Gallery gets fixed. Till then​

 

[TENdriver]

Dan, I’ve occasionally ran across a few pewter pieces at a church thrift store, but it’s not all that common.

There is one church thrift store up by the beltway that gets some pewter, but it’s so dear to them that they tend to price it high enough that it doesn’t sell.



So, do you mean literal scrap metal dealers or some other type?

Also, what tools are you using for shaping and fairing it in?

 

[Charlie Buchanan]

Interesting! Is this the stuff you use? And the hot metal doesn't char the wood?

https://smile.amazon.com/RotoMetals...8&qid=1542507502&sr=8-1&keywords=pewter+ingot

 

[marinosr]

Very interesting, thx for sharing. What did you use to rough out the shape? Was it fast?

 

[danmart77]

So, do you mean literal scrap metal dealers or some other type?

I use one of the local scrap yards. Everything from stainless, brass, iron, copper and brass. Most of the time I look for those "tacky" cups and plates from India for pewter to melt down. Sometimes I have to cut it up when its too big to fit in my cup. The cup in the photo above

Also, what tools are you using for shaping and fairing it in?[/QUOTE]

Tools that I use to shape the nose caps are everyday files and rasps. The pewter gets stuck in the teeth but you can lightly heat the rasp and brush it out with a brass brush and some elbow grease.

In this case I squeezed copper pipe ferrules for strength and then added pewter on a whim and later engraved it for a friend who likes the pewter.

​

 

[danmart77]

Interesting! Is this the stuff you use? Yes the ingots are another way to work with pewter.

https://smile.amazon.com/RotoMetals...8&qid=1542507502&sr=8-1&keywords=pewter+ingot

Charlie that is the most ridiculous price I have seen lately. When I was impatient and didn't want to look around here's where I bought it

https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/1312/1/PEWTER

This is the exact same size for 9 bucks that Amazon wants 32bucks.

And the hot metal doesn't char the wood? It will if you over heat the pewter.

I have poured pewter and plumber's babbit on walnut, cherry, and lots of curly maple. It will burn the thin wood edge only if you are CARELESS when heating. If you look at the photo above, the pour is held in place at full heat with a couple 5 x 8 pieces of cardboard.

The pewter goes solid to liquid somewhere in the 400 degree range. I don't care what the number is as I have no way of measuring the temperature in that range. Neither did the old rifle builders in the 1780s and on.

For those that melted lead to cast toy soldiers(age thing here), its about the same process. At the very moment it melts is a good time to pour. Before I pour, I like to skim/scrape off the impurities from the surface of the liquid in the cup at this time.

I then let it cool to hot solid state. Re heat to the moment it liquifies and pour. As I mentioned earlier, propane will do it and MAP will get there faster.

If you think you might have over heated the pewter, let it cool to solid. Add a little heat. Its not like heating brass to pour in sandforms over and over. Here the brass will loose some of its color as the zinc escapes. No worries with pewter.

My advice is to get some pewter or some lead pipe and melt it down in a cast iron cup like mine. Play with the lead and pewter a little. In the end you have a soft surface that you can adorn, polish and shape.

Charlie I mentioned a willingness to do a class on the process here but the interest was not there. There's an experimental part of this that I think a person could go it on their own if they were curious. There are some do's and don'ts with this stuff.

Charlie you can go down to Old Salem and find Nate or one of the guys in the rifle shop and they will have lots of pewter and ideas. They used to turn plates in the Single Brothers house when I was up there.

later

 

[Charlie Buchanan]

Dan, Thanks for the info. It seems like something I might try out. Years ago I had a summer job in plumbing when the standard was cast iron pipe and poured lead joints. I’ve also wanted to experiment with sulphur inlay I have seen on a chest of drawers at MESDA.

 

[TENdriver]

Dan, Thanks for the info. It seems like something I might try out. Years ago I had a summer job in plumbing when the standard was cast iron pipe and poured lead joints. I’ve also wanted to experiment with sulphur inlay I have seen on a chest of drawers at MESDA.

If you all come up with some good information or experience with sulfur inlay, please share here.


I’ve casually researched it off and on for several years and always come away with it still being a bit of a mystery.


Dan, For your shaping, I wondered if you used or had tried the auto body files that are made for lead work in body shops.

 

[danmart77]

Dan, For your shaping, I wondered if you used or had tried the auto body files that are made for lead work in body shops.

I have tons of coarse files from years of yard sales that I use. I have some of the "cheese-grader" files from body work days too. I have lots of sharp coarse files that I use for the first stages then down to less aggressive teeth as it goes down.

Truth is I only do 3 or 4 nose caps in a year so its not a job I invest too much.

After calling the scrapyard, I realized the ingots for 8 dollars is a good deal. The ingots with "Palmetto" embossed on the bar have the most tin in the mix and tend to be the brightest.

I have some interesting information I stored from years ago on sulphur inlay work. I was doing some measurements around Independence Hall and one of the museum personnel was an expert on the history of the technique and shared some of it with me.

Short lived method as the German cabinet makers in the colonies found the anglo methods of embellishing panels easier to do.