[Ansteorra] ISO Pewter Coin Casters Correction

Stefan li Rous StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Sun Oct 9 13:12:54 PDT 2005


Greetings Lady Elizabeth and others on this list,

As I've talked to you in email, it is difficult to determine the cost  
of the material for a casting without seeing the mold, or better  
doing some casts. The same goes with how easy the mold will cast.  
While there are various things that can be kept in mind when make a  
mold, flow, the most intricate details at the bottom, a sufficient  
spout to all easy entry of the liquid pewter before it begins to  
cool, escape lines for the air in the mold etc, sometimes a mold may  
still have to be reworked. One of the advantages to making pewter  
casting molds out of soapstone, as well as it being a period  
technique, is that you can continue to modify the mold to bring out  
details or improve its pour-ability.

Some polymer clays will take the heat of pewter casting, some won't.  
It also depends upon the number of items needed. I am willing to  
attempt to use your mold and if it doesn't work, to create as close  
an approximation of it as I can by carving a soapstone mold. One of  
the advantages of making a mold in modern materials is that they are  
often finer grained and will hold smaller details. Again, whether  
this is a problem for this particular design is hard to know without  
seeing the mold or a photo of it.

I have had rather poor luck simply pouring pewter into the backside  
of a one part mold. You really want at least a two part mold with a  
funnel in the mold to pour the pewter into, even if you are doing a  
one sided design. With a two part mold the two faces need to fit  
together as smoothly as possible to avoid the liquid pewter from  
flowing out of the mold. Even if the pewter cools before falling on  
the table (or your lap) it may leave "flash" or unwanted mold lines.  
It may be possible to adapt your polymer mold to be a two part mold  
by sanding it flat.

If you are looking to minimize cost, you don't need your coin to be  
the thickness of a U.S. quarter. It can be done in the thickness of a  
single quarter or less. If you will look at a number of the medieval  
pilgrim badges, you will see many that have irregular outlines or  
have open areas in them. I suspect this was done in part to minimize  
the material used and this can be done in the modern Middle Ages as  
well.

As far as price, if the labor is free, then most of your material  
cost is in the pewter. Leadfree pewter costs slightly more than  
leaded pewter, but I think it is worth it. The price of pewter goes  
up and down like any other bulk commodity. While you can buy lead- 
free solder locally in 1 lb spools for between $9 and $15, there are  
other suppliers such as Hallmark who will sell it in ingots. I just  
bought 3 7-pound bars on Friday for $6/pound including shipping.

My policy has been to sell my tokens at cost or slightly below that  
to encourage the use of such tokens in the SCA. I got into this after  
accumulating a pile of miscellaneous site tokens and then not being  
able to remember which piece of ribbon or which piece of string and a  
bead was from which event.

I also am willing to make more than enough tokens for an event and  
then buy any leftovers back at the same cost. Yes, you do lose some  
pewter when you recast them, but I'm willing to do this so that cost  
conscious event stewards won't have to minimize the number of tokens.  
I think that even late arrivals at an event should get the site token  
they pay for.

I have taught numerous classes at Gulf Wars, Pennsic and within this  
kingdom. I am willing to teach more. Many of my students are much  
more artistically inclined than I, and I encourage them to step forward.

However, I am willing to make the tokens for this Kingdom A&S event.

The same goes for any other group in this kingdom who might be  
wanting pewter tokens for their event. Which, as well as informing  
folks about some of the details of pewter casting, is why I've chosen  
to reply to Elizabeth on this list rather than by email.

If folks want more details on casting their own site tokens (Pilgrim  
badges), belt ornaments, buttons, pins and such, I encourage you to  
look at these files in the CRAFTS section of the Florilegium:
casting-msg      (152K)  4/25/05    Casting pewter and other metals.
pewter-msg        (16K)  2/ 7/01    Pewter in period. References.  
Sources.
soapstone-msg     (25K)  7/23/04    Use of Soapstone in period.  
Modern sources.

You can even cast in brass in soapstone molds, but it is much more  
dangerous and the mold needs to be throughly dry. See the comments in  
the casting-msg file.

Stefan

On Oct 9, 2005, at 1:04 PM, Bethany Burke wrote:

> Ok, after doing some research, which I should have done first I  
> know, I have realized that the materials I used to make the mold  
> will not withstand the heat of the pewter.  I have a token made of  
> polymer clay which can be used for someone to make a mold with the  
> appropriate materials.  I also have what would be called a "master  
> mold" also made out of polymer clay, this is called, I believe, a  
> "flat mold" as it is one piece with the design only on one side.   
> The token is about 1 inch wide and 1 and 1/4 inch tall with a  
> raised design.  The base is about the thickness of 2 quarters with  
> the raised design adding the thickness of 1 quarter on top of it.   
> I appologize for any confusion I have caused by my acting first and  
> researching later.  This project is for site tokens for Kingdom A&S  
> and am looking not only for quality work but the best price as  
> well.  Kingdom A&S is February 18th so I really want the tokens in  
> my hands by February 5th so that we have time to string them and !
>  such
>  before the event, and we need 150.
>
> Elizabeth Blackthorne
> Co-Autocrat for Kingdom A&S
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****





More information about the Ansteorra mailing list