OT - Pewter beer stein

[HWooldridge]

A fellow called me tonight about trying to fix his great-grandpa's beer stein. He thinks it's pewter. It was lying on its side in storage and became somewhat oval, either from heat in the storage building or weight from something else or both. I'm not sure I even want to mess with it but I also don't like leaving people hanging if I can give them a suggestion. My thought was to make a uniform cone shape from wood and tap it into the mouth until the roundness was restored. Has anyone done anything similar or have some sound advice (besides the obvious - "BE AFRAID, BE VERY, VERY AFRAID")...:-)

[Rich Waugh]

Assuming that the stein really is pewter, your method wil work just fine. I would put the mouth of the stein over a more or less round stake made of steel or wood, then massage it frm the outside with a well-used rawhide mallet or a soft wood mallet. With pewter, you can even wrap a rag around the face of a hammer to soften its impact yet still move the metal.

[Rantalin]

I have a handful of pewter statues sitting on a bookcase, and boy is pewter soft! A couple of figures have bent and others have broken. Those that were fixable, I repaired just by bending the bent part back into place with my hands, but once I felt tension, I stopped and didn't dare go farther for fear of snapping it off. The cone idead should work, as long as the pewter wants to bend back into place.

[FredlyFX]

I would follow the suggestions above, but would also tell the person you are doing it at their risk, and there is a chance it could crack or even a whole chunk break out of it.