Warning: the operations described in this sheet must be carried out in accordance with the safety rules. If you wish to reproduce these operations,
use gloves, a leather apron, avoid flip-flops, wear protective glasses and above all work in a ventilated environment to melt the tin and wear a mask.
This list is not exhaustive and it is your sole responsibility to take all necessary measures to avoid an accident.
Old bohas have decorations or sometimes also have pewter reeds. Today it is possible to find in the trade of pewter
with compositions adapted to the realization of these decorations and reeds. However, if you want to use tin close to that of their time of boha play,
think about recycling old tin.
Until the 19th century, pewter was used for kitchen equipment, cutlery, plates, but also in churches for organs.
or in the trade with for example the measurements and also in medicine with the enemas.
Old fashioned recipe for recycling old pewter.
Clyster is the name formerly given to the enema and by extension to the large pewter syringe used to administer it. There are a large number of copies of this object
in flea markets and garage sales. The piston clyster was developed in the 19th century, therefore at the same time as our old bohas. We can therefore think that this tin is
of composition if not identical at least very close to that which decorates our historical instruments.
The objective is therefore to recover tin from a piston enema. It should be noted that it is recommended to use only enemas that are damaged, pierced, dented or
incomplete to leave the copies in good condition to collectors.
Presentation of the stages of the recycling process.
Cut the enema using a large pincer in order to obtain pieces of about 3 to 5cm apart because this facilitates the melting.
Put everything in a container and let melt over high heat, shaking the container in a circular manner from time to time. After a few minutes, the tin will make
and you can see at the bottom of your container a thick silvery liquid with blackish deposits on the surface. These are impurities and oxidation
tin which naturally separated from "pure" tin.
Then all that remains is to pour the liquid into heat-resistant moulds, being careful of any splashes. Avoid silicone molds
for Madame's pastries, she could, rightly, not appreciate! By pouring slowly, the impurities which are on the surface do not fall into the mold and remain
at the end of the process at the bottom of the container. Here it is the base of a cast iron vice that is used to form the ingot, it is placed on a wooden board.
This gives quite nice little ingots.
Let cool and store the "precious" ingots while waiting to use them to decorate an instrument, make the body of a reed or whatever.
