Casting Pewter Bolsters

[j.w.s.]

Finally finished my latest video on casting pewter directly onto a knife. I know it's not up to my usual editing quality, some of the audio may be a little off and I noticed the focus traveling (maybe I'm nit-picking), but I've got a 3 month little girl who is in constant need of daddy's participation in her life and a completely new piece of software on my linux box to learn for multi-camera shooting. Anyway, I hope someone finds it useful or hopefully at the very least mildly entertaining. Enjoy!

-J

 

 

[Glenn]

It is scary melting pewter to 450*F with no safety glasses on.

You do put them on before the final heat and the pour.

Suggest you fold back upon itself a bit of the end of the tape (forming a tab) so it can easily be held onto and then removed.

 

[j.w.s.]

It is scary melting pewter to 450*F with no safety glasses on.

You do put them on before the final heat and the pour.

 

It's 550F, and it's not all that scary when you take the right steps. It was playing around with raining that day so prior to shooting the video (outside), I blew out any loose debris and put my ladle in my tempering oven on a low temp to drive off any ambient moisture, so there wouldn't be a problem with splashing or popping in the crucible due to water vapor and I can't think of anything else that would be able to make a molten dense metal leap 18 inches to my eyes - I mean this is a ladle designed to handle molten steel at what - 3300F? I'm not saying it couldn't happen.. heck, I'm a firm believer that chaos is the natural state of the universe and us forcing order on it is just looking for trouble..  Pouring, I probably should be wearing a face shield, but my friends all say that chicks dig facial scars, and I listen to my friends way before I listen to logic..  

-J

 

[HWooldridge]

I liked it a lot - appreciate you taking the time to produce and publish it.  I was concerned the sampling crucible would spill without a spout but you handled it well and you obviously didn't preheat the blade but I wonder if a little warmth from the torch might help it flow against the metal.  I've cast several thousand bullets in my lifetime (primarily lead alloys) and the mold always needs to heat up a bit to prevent a wrinkled surface.  I also wonder whether a person could carve a wax form for odd shapes like finger guards then cast a plaster of Paris form for each side.  Combine the halves and pour the pewter into a more complex shape - you could also cast it large to allow for more room for finishing.  The plaster would probably need to be burnt out in a kiln to remove the water but still might be worth the extra work for complex bolsters.

I wanted to put pewter on a kukri I made recently but wound up using brass and riveting in place.  After watching your demo, I may well use it on a Bowie that my son wants me to make for him.

Again - nice work and thanks for the effort.

[Frosty]

While we're concerned for your personal safety I'm struck by the example it sets for youngsters who want to try this stuff without knowing what they're doing. We've all seen kids posting to IFI get upset when told what they want to do doesn't work like they've seen on Youtube.

Just saying a good example is worth not attracting so many chicks.

Give the baby a big warm Frosty hug for me please. Frosty The Lucky.

[j.w.s.]

I liked it a lot - appreciate you taking the time to produce and publish it.  I was concerned the sampling crucible would spill without a spout but you handled it well and you obviously didn't preheat the blade but I wonder if a little warmth from the torch might help it flow against the metal.  I've cast several thousand bullets in my lifetime (primarily lead alloys) and the mold always needs to heat up a bit to prevent a wrinkled surface.  I also wonder whether a person could carve a wax form for odd shapes like finger guards then cast a plaster of Paris form for each side.  Combine the halves and pour the pewter into a more complex shape - you could also cast it large to allow for more room for finishing.  The plaster would probably need to be burnt out in a kiln to remove the water but still might be worth the extra work for complex bolsters.

I wanted to put pewter on a kukri I made recently but wound up using brass and riveting in place.  After watching your demo, I may well use it on a Bowie that my son wants me to make for him.

Again - nice work and thanks for the effort.

Thank you. Heating the metal blade slightly will help with adhesion. The blend of pewter I'm using is bismuth free, so I wasn't too worried about it becoming porous or too wrinkled, plus I over size the tape so I'm going to be removing some material anyway. I've thought about doing the wax method and plaster forms. In theory they should work well enough as long as the plaster is completely dry - I've cast brass in it before and that's at a much higher temp.

While we're concerned for your personal safety I'm struck by the example it sets for youngsters who want to try this stuff without knowing what they're doing. We've all seen kids posting to IFI get upset when told what they want to do doesn't work like they've seen on Youtube.

Just saying a good example is worth not attracting so many chicks.

Give the baby a big warm Frosty hug for me please. Frosty The Lucky.

Lol, I forgot other people still allow their children on the interwebs.. Maybe I should change the age requirement on YouTube?   And the baby has officially been hugged.

-J

[Frosty]

 

And the baby has officially been hugged.

Frosty The Lucky.

Edited June 20, 2015 by Frosty