Items made from Cornish Tin

All the items on this page were made from tin produced here in the St Just Mining District

For a number of years I have been making items from locally produced tin mostly for Christmas presents. This is a 19th century miner of the St Just area made from tin produced from an outcrop. Over his left shoulder are a bundle of hand drills and in his right hand his hammer with a shortish handle suitable for the one man drilling technique used in the narrow lodes of the area. At the end of the day tin from China is the same as tin from Brazil or Cornwall but there is something very satisfying about doing the whole thing from finding the tin ore to smelting to casting or constructing the finished item. Although tin melts easily at about 232 C smelting from the oxide requires a temperature of about 1100C. This tankard is made from tin mined from an outcrop the handle and base are centrifugally cast into vulcanized rubber moulds and the side wall is constructed from sheet made with a mini rolling mill. The seahorse is a brooch again from outcrop mined tin, this is centrifugally cast into a vulcanized rubber mould. The engine house night light holder is from the same outcrop as the other items it has a cast base the side wall is constructed from sheet and the engine house is cast the components were joined by soldering. Pure tin is very soft and difficult to cast so I tend to leave the metal fairly impure about 99% small amounts of various impurities have a considerable hardening effect and improve the castings by extending the freezing range.

We have now started to produce some of these sorts of items in lead free pewter and have a growing range of designs in Cornish tin visit the tintags website to view the products.

More items made from Cornish tin (Geevor Miner and a small bowl made from Geevor tin)