A lot of folks come to us and ask, "if you made that in pewter for me, would it be less expensive than silver?"

The short answer: NO.

But the long answer deserves some consideration.

The Cost of Silver

When you buy a piece of jewelry from SeriousSilver.com, you're not paying for just the metal content of the piece. Silver is relatively inexpensive. As of today's writing, silver costs only $5.07 per troy ounce on the market. (Of course that's before casting costs & the fact that our suppliers don't pass it on for exactly what they pay for it.)

But what you're really paying for is all the work that goes in after it comes out of the casting process. Some jewelers use a much faster and less labor intense tumbling process, which is fine for commercial jewelry, but lacks the scrutiny needed to created a custom work. We meticulously hand polish each piece. We finds that certain areas in a piece need high polishing and others need a brushed finish so that the patina will bring out the definition and detail in his jewelry. Each piece is checked for imperfections and to be sure that no detail is lost.

Tin: The King of Metals

One of the metals used in making pewter is tin. In ancient times, tin was called the King of Metals and was therefore held sacred to Jupiter, king of the Roman gods. Why tin? Why not gold? Or even silver? Because tin could conquer even precious metals. Tin can actually EAT other metals.

Try this experiment. (But not with anything you LIKE!) Take a piece of tin or pewter and scratch it lightly across a piece of silver. In a few hours that scratch will become a deeper scrape. In a few days it will become a gouge.

Even keeping pewter jewelry in the same jewelry box endangers all your gold and silver. Eventually the other metals will tarnish and begin to disintegrate. Wearing pewter jewelry at the same time you're wearing other jewelry is also a bad idea, since they're likely to collide.

Don't Hold My Mana

For the metaphysically inclined, there is a further reason not to use pewter. (Naturally all the folks making pewter Thor's Hammers and Goddess charms won't tell you this.) Pewter won't hold mana.

Mana is a Polynesian word for the energy that flows through all living things. It is this energy that mages harness and use to empower talismans and other magickal objects. Certain materials conduct magickal energy better than others. Interestingly, these are usually the same materials that conduct electrical energy well. Copper is one of the best conductors. Silver and gold are also good. Quartz crystal (silicon dioxide) is also a great conductor, and is used in making computer chips. (Other materials such as glass & lead, which is fortunately no longer used in pewter, tend to insulate energy.)

Pewter, however, will only hold a charge for a brief time. Mana just drips off it. Since the purpose of a talisman is to hold a charge so that the wearer can access that energy when needed, what is the sense in making a talisman from a metal that will need to be constantly recharged?

In the end, the best metals to use for jewelry are silver and gold. They hold their value, they hold your mana, and (IMHO) they provide a lasting satisfaction that you can't get from pewter or other base metals.

Lionrhod

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