[TheForge] Re: tinsmithing books and tools

[Mike Spencer]

> would anyone know of a source for food safe/grade tin and food
> safe/grade tin solder. the one project requires that the copper be
> fluxed and tinned on the inside of the kettle. i have zinc chloride
> and ammonium chloride.

Canada Metal makes a product called Tin-Rite that is pure tin [1] and
flux.  It works way better for tinning cookware than messing with bar
tin and ammonium chloride. (Although it does make ammoniacal fumes
too.  I've done it both ways.)  The only problem I ever had was
getting them to send me some.  It took me a year of poking them off
and on with a (metaphorical) stick to get them to send it to me.

If you can't find it locally, you might contact the guy who finally
sent me some, Dick Hall at Canada Metal:

     "Richard Hall" <rhall at canadametal.com>

With regard to solder, I wrote to Kester and asked (in part):

     What is the alloy composition of "Kester lead free solid wire
     solder"?

     The product number appears to be either 10900-5 or 10-9520-0300.

The reply was:

    From: "Masterson, Joseph" <jmasterson at kester.com>
    To: "'mspencer at tallships.ca'" <mspencer at tallships.ca>
    Subject: RE: Alloy composition of product, plz
    Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 09:28:44 -0500

    Hello Michael,  

    The alloy is made up of  97%Sn,  2%Cu,  0.8%Sb,  0.2%Ag.  

    We are working on getting part numbers and full descriptions onto
    the web, you wouldn't believe the hassle it is to work with an
    outside web designer.


    Thanks,

    Joe Masterson
    Kester
    Technical Service Engineer
    (800)2-KESTER


- Mike

[1]  They say it's pure tin except for  flux components that fume
     or wash off.  I haven't had it analysed myself.  But I've been
     using cookware tinned with it for ca. 20 years. And I had a
     heavy metal clinical workup about 10 years ago that showed no
     deviation from normal.  FWIW.

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^