I have been experimenting more with short term wooden moulds for pewter work these days and I suspect that it was used in period for pewter work more than has been documented. The pine store-bought wood I have been using holds up remarkably well to multiple castings and even when it does seem to burn, it seems to retain it’s integrity reasonably well. Using the wood allows larger filigree type works to be created reasonably quickly with a sharp carving tool and some skill. the wood seems to allow a remarkable amount if details and because of it’s insulating and porous qualities seems to be a great medium for making larger flatter pieces as the molten pewter flows to all extremities of the mould before freezing.

Earlier on in the week I used a wooden mould to create a piece of flat sheet that I could turn into a cup by rolling and then soldering the seem and the base in place. I suspect with a little more care in creating the mould I could make this sheet a lot thinner and much smoother. Though the other consideration for making flat sheet is to use sheet metal, and make a 3 piece sandwich with a sheet metal blank sandwiched between 2 pine boards.

I know I should change my chosen metal from Pewter to silver as more and more of the things that I want to make are much better when made in silver, and I could also cast the silver in the soapstone moulds I already have. However it seems that my skills are more and more being used to make event tokens which is far more rewarding, as tokens seem to get kept, and they have a larger audience rather than special silver thing’s that are only special to those they were made for. Anyway, I haven’t done much these days, so I shouldn’t worry too much until I get to a point of needing to evaluate.