Dipping my toe in the deep end: My first pewter casting

sneak preview of finished product! I MADE A BUTTON. 

About a year ago, I decided, that even though I'm not that great with 3 dimensional art, it would be really awesome if I could make some of my own viking bling, so I could get exactly what I wanted at a price I could afford. That led to a flurry of research on metal casting, historical and modern, and the decision that Brass/bronze casting,which was the best choice for economical jewelry, was more than I had time to play with, more equipment than I had funds for, and generally that I needed yet another hobby like I needed a hole in the head. So I filed all the links for my research on a pinterest board, and let it sit.

This summer I made the mistake of showing my husband some maltese cross button's I'd found in cast metal. I told him I thought they'd look great on his garb, but they were a little pricey. His response was to make puppy dog eyes and ask me if I could make them. I remained firm. I needed another project like a hole in the head. Husbeast then went online and posted the buttons, and before I knew it I had been elected, by general consensus, to spearhead a button making effort for the household in the fall..... There was some logic in this. I had poured pewter at a baronial workshop in the past, and gotten the feel for it pretty quickly. I had already done most of the research about metal casting, and although I'm not a great 3 dimensional worker, I can carve a wax positive of a button. I caved.

Although in the modern world we're very fond of it, historically Pewter was a lower class metal that was accessible to the masses. I didn't even consider working viking jewelry in it, because for my persona I would have had plated brass or even silver jewelry. The hierarchy of metals for vikings seems to have been: Pewter, brass, plated brass, silver, gold. But in later periods pewter, particularly for buttons and dinner ware, was quite popular. Metal buttons were a status symbol, even made of lower quality metals like pewter.

Pewter was, and is, the easiest of the metals to work: it doesn't require special heating equipment, a simple low heat crucible is useful, but you can melt it right on the stove, and you can pour it with a stainless spoon if you need to. Historically it has been available since at least roman times, and it was cast in soapstone, clay, or even antler molds. Because of the low melting temperature it doesn't destroy the molds as quickly, and it won't explode improperly made molds, spraying everything with molten metal and shrapnel, if you don't do it right (which is one of the major downside to casting other metals).

Because 3 dimensional art is not my first choice, I wanted to work a positive, then cast a mold, rather than carving a negative (like you do in a soapstone mold) I felt more confident in my ability to get a good result this way. That got rid of the #1 choice for molds: soapstone. Historically clay molds were also used, but that requires the right mix of clay. In period vikings mixed clay, sand, and cow dung in precise proportions to make durable clay molds for mass producing jewelry like tortoise brooches. Although some people have made interesting strides down that road, I was just looking to dip my toes here, I needed something easy and accessible for the beginner. A little research led me to the unexpected discovery that bondo makes great pewter molds. You can cast it off a positive, and the result is carveable to add details, and sandable as well. It sounded ideal.

With my idea set, and a little direction from my wonderful baron, who is a metal caster extraordinaire, I ordered my materials and set about carving a positive. This I actually did in the period approved way, starting with beeswax. I used a piece of copper tubing to cast a stick of button blanks, and cut a little tiny maltese cross point out of paper.













I worked on the face of the stick of beeswax, rather than cutting off a chunk, because it was easier to manipulate without hurting myself. I first rounded the top to a dome, then traced my maltese cutout with a pin. I filled that in with black sharpie so I could see what I was doing, then used an exacto to cut out the shape, and texture the background.





The beauty of beeswax is that once you have a rough cut down you can detail with heat. You can even drip a little extra wax onto a spot you messed up and fix it. A fairly large needle, and a candle, and I was able to get all the details just right.

Then I used a sharp knife to cut the button off the wax stick, and flattened the back with the hot needle. A hot wire would have probably worked best for this, but would have taken two sets of hands, one to hold the wax stick, one to cut.

You will note that this button is just a flat disk with no hasp on the back. This isn't just because that would be a fiddly pain to carve out of wax, it's because it's almost impossible to cast a mold around a hasp. it's easier to carve it out in the mold.

Husbeast made me a take apart 2 level wood frame for the mold, and I mixed the bondo. His Excellency had recommended submerging wire mesh around the button, both to stabilize the mold, and more importantly, to help dispense the heat, I had gotten the wire sculpting mesh from amazon, and cut a square and molded it into the half circle. I poured half the mold, smushed the wire down into the goop, and filled the rest of the mold. Then I stuck the button down into the bondo so that the back was even with the surface. So far, so good, I left and waited for the mold to set.

And that's where everything went pear shaped. I didn't know that the chemical reaction that causes bondo to harden is exothermic, but I found out when  I came back to check and found my wax positive a little jiggling puddle. Oops? Luckily the bondo had hardened enough to take a fairly good impression before it melted the button, so I was able to just use a knife and some sanding paper to clean up the edges of the impression,  and come out with a good mold, but it was about 2x the work. Next time I will carve in wax, cast a plaster positive, and then use that to make my molds.

Buttons have to be a 3 part mold if you cast them with a hasp. I cast the back as a solid flat slab, then had my husband cut it in half on the band saw. I marked the hasp on one half with marker, then quickly put the halves back together so the mark transferred. Then I carved out the hasp, and pouring funnel (sprue). Again on recommendation from his excellency, I carved the sprue out as a flattened funnel almost he entire width of the top of the button hasp, giving the pewter as little of a choke point as possible during pouring.

My husband drilled holes in the pieces, and I pounded in pieces of coat hanger wire as pins, and we were ready to pour!

I marked the sides so it would be easy to put it together the right way, the pins only fit one way, but the markings eliminate some fumbling.

The first pours showed I needed to clean up the carving a little. Since bondo can be easily carved with a craft knife, and sands nicely, that was pretty easy, although tedious to get it just right. a couple hours and 4-5 test buttons later, I had a good mold.

Which was good, because I had procrastinated (shocking I know) and was finishing this the night before we were supposed to have a household get together to make buttons! Because I procrastinated and then had some trouble (which is why you don't procrastinate) I only got one mold done, but it worked out ok. Even with a single mold, I could pour fast enough to keep ahead of 5 people trimming, sanding, and polishing the buttons. Which is the very tedious part of casting. Even with a firmly clamped well made mold, there's a lot of tidying up to be done between fresh casting and useable button! The only downside of the single mold was that it occasionally got too hot and had to be put in the freezer to cool down. Two molds I could have rotated in and out to keep them cool. Hot molds didn't cast as clean of a button.

Many hands make light work and we managed to make about a hundred buttons in a day, enough for all of us and some left over. Everyone got to learn to pour, and we had a delightful feast of brisket and ribs provided by Husbeast afterwards.

I actually really enjoyed the process and I have some plans for other pewter casting projects coming up. I'd like to play with false enamel as well perhaps. I might even figure out a token for myself? Which is something I really should do but have dithered over.