Moulding Pewter Bolsters & Caps

[theskenic]

A few words before I start. Pewter melts at about 250 degrees centigrade. If you are careless, at best you will damage anything it spills on, at worse you will suffer severe injury. Everything must be dry, don’t use damp wood for the moulds. For the melting pot you will need a steel or iron one with a pouring lip. When you melt down your tankard you will get some slag on the top but with careful pouring you can leave this behind in the pot. Make the moulds oversize and cut the castings back to what you want. At this first attempt I was not worried about the quality, just whether I could do it.
I wanted some thick pieces of pewter for caps and bolsters on my next knifes. It was difficult to locate a cheap supplier. So I thought it would be possible to mould some if I could come up with a cheap supply of pewter. Pewter melts at not much more a temperature than lead. I had a melting pot that I made up years ago for making sea fishing lead weights. I went to a local boot fair and bought 2 Pewter tankards for £4. I cast up a couple of blocks just to see if it was possible with limited equipment. Also it was difficult to estimate how much pewter is actually in a tankard.
This is my melting pot with one tankard cut up and in it.

The moulds were made from scrap wood. You can use I or 2 thicknesses depending on how thick you want your end result. Cut the holes and screw the parts together. The holes can be straight sided or tapered.


As the wife was out I melted it down on the gas ring with the extractor fan on (I don’t know if noxious fumes are given off). It took just over 10 mins. If I had cut up the pewter into small pieces it would have been a bit quicker. If you have some sort of camping cooker it may be as well to do this outdoors.

Set the moulds on a tray with an outer rim. If you do get a runoff from the moulds you don’t won’t it down your legs or on the floor.

Pour carefully into the moulds and wait for it not only to set, but also cool down. It will hold the heat for a long time.

Unscrew the mould and remove the casting. I found that the casting did not want to come out so I just split the mould apart. It was only scrap wood I was using. The shaped one on the left is 22mm high, 40mm at the base and 30mm at the top. The one on the right is 38mm high and 30mm in dia.

There is quite a lot of pewter in a tankard. These were from 1 tankard with a dribble left over. The beauty is that now I know this works I can make some smoother moulds, melt down my first rough castings and start again.

[stonehard]

nice tutorial. I have cast pewter much the same way as you. it is possible to make moulds out of plaster of paris. I use fimo to make a model and then cast that in plaster. works really well. only trouble pewter is so soft it wont keep any detail for very long

[a6cjn]

I've done a fair bit of pewter casting, over the years and have used a variety of materials for moulds.
There's a very old 'tutorial' knocking about somewhere where the bolster is cast directly onto the handle using brown paper wrapped around the handle as the mould.
PetraBond (oil based foundry sand) allows very fine detail but you can use MDF or Cuttle fish bone for your moulds.
A couple of things to consider, particularly when using scrap pewter, older stuff may well contain lead which, apart from H&S issues, will not give a very good finish. Modern pewter is an alloy of tin, copper and antinomy BUT using a torch to melt the stuff is a bit hit and miss as it so easy to get it too hot and burn off the antinomy and/or tin. A thermostically controlled oven will give far better and consistent results.
Have a look here for a bit more info and supplies

Chris

[arian]

Have a look at this thread:
http://britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84620

arian

[PeterC]

This might be of interest.

http://www.mutr.co.uk/product_info.p...roducts_id=909

[theskenic]

Thanks for your input guys. I was mainly trying to see it I could cast up a block using a cheap scource of pewter and with the limited tools that anyone would have in their shed. It would not warrant me buying a furnace and I dont know anyone that has one. I have since found that if the wooden moulds are sanded smooth you can get a prety good finish. The intention is to finish the front of the bolster, fit that and the handle. then blend and finish them both together. I will try the plaster mould next.

[MushiSushi]

at 250°C, you could use silicone moulds for multiple repeats

[ZDP-189]

I have had some varying results with silicone; perhaps it was a bad mix. Plaster has to be very dry - possibly autoclave dry or the water will vaporise and ruin the cast.

[MushiSushi]

addition cure silicone has a higher working temp than condensation cure

which did you use?

[MushiSushi]

if using plaster use a high temp plaster like crystacal or herculite and cook the mould in the oven before use