Muskoka Pewter is a small business consisting of myself, Garrett Green and my wife Roxanne. I have been creating and manufacturing pewter pieces since 1995. The creation of a pewter piece from start to finish is quite detailed. The first thing I need is a model which can be created from a simple photo or idea.
Once I have a model, I need to make a mold around the piece. The mold material I use is silicone. The silicone is cooked in a vulcanizer and once it is hard the mold needs to have gates and air vents carved into it so that when you pour molten (450 degrees) pewter into the mold, it fills the cavities where the model(s) were.
The pewter I use for pouring is the highest grade pewter you can find. It is lead free consisting of 97% tin plus a mixture of bismuth, antimony, copper and silver in very small amounts.
After pouring, the gate (rough area where the pewter breaks off the piece) must be grinded. Then the pewter piece is cleaned in boiling water, then antiqued in a pewter blackening solution. This allows the black to get deep into the detail. I then tumble about 50 pieces in a vibratory/spinning tumbler of ceramic shot. After the pieces dry, they are buffed with a medium/coarse pad (similar to a scouring pad).
Finally, the pieces are packaged and ready to go.
So from start to finish there are a number of steps. But that’s one of the things I like about the process…I’m rarely doing the same things two days in a row.
