Kellz

[Kellz]

Hello everyone,
I live near Manchester and have been working with silver since November 2015. Like some of your other members I don't wear jewellery but more practical items work out a bit expensive. I branched out into pewter in January this year and have been pleased with the results although I wouldn't give up the silver.

[Dennis]

Don't tease us then Kellz. Show us some of your pewter.
Suggestions of sourcing the material and how to work it would be appreciated. Dennis.

[CJ57]

Hi Kellz, ditto what Dennis said. I don't think there are many on here who use pewter so always interesting to see new work

[-Sally-]

Welcome to the forum Kellz - what kind of things do you make in pewter?
Sally

[Kellz]

Thanks for the welcome. You'll have to bear with if I do this wrong but I've never done a forum before.
The first pic is a pewter vessel about 6cms tall. It was made with 1mm sheet,textured with sandpaper on a rolling mill and then stamped with stars.(stars and stripes). The second pic shows 2 spoons with handles cast in cuttlefish and bowls made with 1mm sheet. The dragonfly key ring was also cast in cuttlefish. The owl was cast in delft clay using a button and then soldered onto 2mm sheet.
Hope you like them. My suppliers are Pewtercraft.co.uk who do small quantities and will cut to size and Carn Metals for solder and flux.

[Dennis]

Lovely work. Thank you for sharing. Dennis.

[Sandra]

Thanks for sharing your lovely work Kellz! I've been curious about working with pewter, how do you find soldering pewter vs. Silver?

[Kellz]

Its different. Mainly because of the heat required. With silver once you've warmed the metal you can pretty much blast it but with pewter you use low heat. For pewter I use a pen torch from b&q and I turn that down a bit. The solder comes in sticks and you can flux(bakers fluid) and place pieces of solder as you would with silver or you can flux your object, dip the end of the stick in flux, heat the object and then touch the solder stick onto the heated metal. The solder should run but I need more practice because it sometimes blobs. You can't heat too much because your piece will melt. On the up side if it goes pear shaped you can melt it in a ladle with a kitchen torch and cast something else. No waste.

[Sandra]

Thanks for the info, I guess I would have to practice on a few pieces first. I have a regular soldering iron with a controllable thermostat, I wonder if I could use that with pewter solder?

[Snorkmaiden]

Thanks for the welcome. You'll have to bear with if I do this wrong but I've never done a forum before.
The first pic is a pewter vessel about 6cms tall. It was made with 1mm sheet,textured with sandpaper on a rolling mill and then stamped with stars.(stars and stripes). The second pic shows 2 spoons with handles cast in cuttlefish and bowls made with 1mm sheet. The dragonfly key ring was also cast in cuttlefish. The owl was cast in delft clay using a button and then soldered onto 2mm sheet.
Hope you like them. My suppliers are Pewtercraft.co.uk who do small quantities and will cut to size and Carn Metals for solder and flux.

They are lovely. Glad its not just me who struggles with the forum technology!