Re-tinning copper saucepans?

[Green Pimble]

I recently bought a set of 5 antique copper saucepans at auction. They are (apparently) from the Central Pacific Rail Road! Once I have cleaned them up I would like to re-tin the insides and actually cook with them.

Does anyone have any practical tips for re-tinning? I've found some instructions on Instructables (https://www.instructables.com/DIY-Hand- ... Pans-Inst/) which seem straight forward. I can apparently order the flux and tin from a store in the US. Is there some other way I can accomplish this? Some sort of tin electro-plating? Has anyone tried this before?

[Green Pimble]

So I went ahead and tried my hand at re-tinning one of the copper pots myself. It was not a roaring success.

I started out by sanding the inside of the pot to remove all the old oxidised tin. I used 200 grit sandpaper, steelwool, and a scourer. I got it down to bare copper on the bottom, but probably did not remove enough of the oxidised tin on the sides for the new tin to bind properly. Mistake number one.

I heated the pot in the kitchen oven to ~240 degrees C, then took it outside and used a flame torch I bought from the store to further heat it, playing the flame torch around the pot while it sat on a metal biscuit rack suspended between two sawhorses. My second mistake was using the flame torch. While it definitely heated the copper pot, parts of the copper changed colour as there was a lot of heat differential between the areas being heated and the areas exposed to the air.

I then splashed some flux inside and used a wad of thick cotton material to spread it around. Mistake number three. I don't think the flux applied very evenly to the inside.

I melted a bit of pure tin in the base of the pot and spread it around with the wad of cotton. This worked well for the bottom of the pot. I achieved a food safe, tin-only surface. It was rough and not cosmetically appealing, but otherwise okay. I was unable, however, to get the tin to stick to the sides at all, likely as a combination of not enough of the old tin removed, and not enough flux.

The current pot should be rescuable (save for the discolouration), but it will require more sanding/scrubbing.

I have a number of improvements to try for my next attempt:

• I will remove all the old oxidised tin from the inside of the pots, aiming to have shiny tin or bare copper only.

• I will use a spray bottle to apply the flux, mixed with a bit of water, to more evenly apply flux to the inside of the pot.

• I've also read of people 'pickling' the pot by soaking it in hydrchloric acid prior to heating it, so I will give that a go too. This is supposed to further remove oxides from the copper/tin, meaning the new tin has available copper to bind to.

• I will use a thicker cotton material as my wadding, perhaps some denim.

• I've also read about people who apply a chalk-paste mixture to the outside of the pots, which both reduces the changes of colour (is that copper oxidation?) and also makes it easy to remove any spilt tin from the outside.

• Finally I am going to look for a way to more evenly heat the copper pots. I've seen it done traditionally over a fire with small bellows, or a modern equivalent appears to be a large gas-ring burner. I'll investigate what can be acquired locally/loaned.

I'll update you all on my progress when it occurs, but I have many hours of sanding and scrubbing before then!

[basuragomi]

The change of colour is probably due to an oxide layer forming. I think plaster of paris/gypsum would work as a protective coating. Maybe a pizza oven would work well for even heating? Either way, very cool to see that you got (some level) of success!

[Miss Lonelyhearts]

Cool project to see pop up here. Lots of discussion related to this at the Cookware forum on Chowhound. One of the more knowledgeable posters is a retinner/reseller in France who posts videos of retinning on his YouTube, though he’s cagey about certain things like the exact composition of the fluid he uses to strip old tin.

I’ve only ever had pans retinned by a pro, but it definitely seems like something that can be DIY if you get over the hump. Good luck!

[Green Pimble]

...I think plaster of paris/gypsum would work as a protective coating. Maybe a pizza oven would work well for even heating?...

Thanks for your encouragement! A pizza oven is a good idea, although I am attracted by the idea of a fire with bellows. That should be easy enough to set up in a backyard somewhere. Good thinking on the plaster too, since that will be easily removed afterwards.

...One of the more knowledgeable posters is a retinner/reseller in France who posts videos of retinning on his YouTube, though he’s cagey about certain things like the exact composition of the fluid he uses to strip old tin...

Thanks for your support too, I appreciate it!
It's frustrating when people are cagey about the skills/equipment they use. I wouldn't have considered re-tinning antique copper pots a particularly crowded market... In any case, I've seen others have good success with mechanically removing the old tin (sanding, sand blasting, scrubbing, etc.) so I'll do more of that.

I do, however, sometimes question the wisdom of buying these pots in the first place. I like antique cookware, and they are beautiful items, but I don't think they'd be compatible with an induction cooktop, which is the way most of my friends and family are going. I'll cross that bridge later!