How To Scrap Pewter & Where To Find It

Pewter is another alloy that is very strange and has all types of forms. Pewter can be made into dishes, bowls, silverware, but generally you will see pewter in decorative features.

You won’t go to Walmart or Sears to buy silverware for your home made from pewter…but if you find it in scrap it could be a great score.

What Is Pewter Made Of?

Pewter generally contains the element tin, and because we have defined tin before, you know we are not talking about steel or light iron. The high content of Tin could make for a nice score when you go to cash in.

Where To Find Pewter Scrap

If you are looking to find some pewter a great place to start is the garage and yard sales in your area. You can check out the old silverware and plates (or even bed pans like the one above!) that some older homes may have from them. It will be difficult to tell if you in fact have pewter until you have it analyzed at the scrap yard. But you can always bring it to your local yard and have them check it out. Worse comes to worse, you may only have Brass or copper.

You can also search for pewter from antique shops. While usually they know how to price more expensive things, you may get lucky and find a deal. You can search for pewter pieces that can be scrapped for a higher value than for what you bought them at.

How To Determine If You Have Pewter

So you have heard of pewter before, there are all different types of pewter but you don’t know what type you have. Pewter is a metal that is made up of Lead, tin, and another metal called antimony.

Depending on age, quality, and quantity of the pewter will determine the best price for the material that you have. It is hard to tell how much the pewter would be worth if you just do the quick eye test. All pewter has a very similar look to it, and without a metal analyzer you will be hard pressed to get a straight answer over the phone when you are looking for pricing.

The most common pewter items that you will have are from homes, and they include all types of bowls, knives, and other common kitchen utensils. To tell pewter apart from silver plated items think that it will be very dull and have a small luster to it similar to lead.

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