[Sca-cooks] Speaking of tinned, copper cookware

[Dragon]

Jennifer Carlson did speak thusly:

>DOES anyone know a tinker?  Or a company that does such work?  I 
>have a beautiful little Danish saucepan on 6-inch legs that I would 
>love to use, but the tin lining has oxidized and flaked in spots.
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The melting point of tin is only 450F so it is also not extremely 
difficult to do. (And this is also the reason why you NEVER want a 
tinned copper pot to go dry, it can easily exceed that 450F in a very 
short span of time.

The basic process is not overly difficult.

Do this outside with proper fire protection.

So... first you need to thoroughly clean the inside of the pot until 
it is shiny. You don't have to remove all of the tin that is there 
but all flaky stuff and any organic matter must be gone. Use fine 
steel wool to smooth it out and give it a satin finish.

Then you want to thoroughly degrease it because oils can prevent the 
tin from adhering. Use naphtha to do that and then do not touch the 
surface to be tinned with your bare skin again. (Use gloves when 
handling the naphtha and remember it is VERY flammable).

Next you must melt the tin, use an old aluminum pot you don't care about.

Heat the pot to be tinned to 450F. Use an infrared thermometer to 
check it or do it in the oven if you know your oven to be accurate. 
Heating the pot gives you more working time as the tin won't solidify 
quite as fast.

Once the pot is heated and the tin is melted, you must work quickly.

Apply flux to the entire inside of the pot to be tinned. Use a brush 
with natural bristles that won't melt. The type of brush-on flux used 
for plumbing joints on copper pipe is perfectly adequate for this.

Use a clean putty knife or spoon to remove the dross (the crud that 
forms on top of the tin). Just quickly scrape it away and remove it.

Quickly pour some of the tin into the pot to be coated and swirl it 
around to coat the entire inside and then pour out the excess.

You should now have a nicely tinned pot. If any spots did not get 
properly coated, you can usually fix them without having to redo the 
entire pot. Use your steel wool to buff out the pot, degrease as 
before. Heat just the problem area with a propane torch, apply flux 
and then some tin with a small spoon.


Dragon

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