Comments on: Melting tin

By: Mia

Mia — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:34:20 +0000

The horse shoes probably are ok for the New Year’s game (the pieces generally get many sharp edges too when they form quickly in water so luckily not too nice for kids to handle either), but if anyone’s interested in using tin in artwork, you can google “high purity tin” or 98% tin, I know GreatArt in UK sells such “pure tin” in sheets.

By: Jenni

Jenni — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 08:20:59 +0000

These horse shoe shaped pieces of “tin” are nowadays mostly lead (about 90%). So please be careful and do not let your children handle these items unsupervised.

By: Mia

Mia — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:54:34 +0000

Yes, certainly, you don’t necessarily even need to make the previous year’s tin into horse shoes again – just melt the old year’s tin the next year (many recycle like that). Year by year the amount will get smaller, as bits tend to crumble off every time the tin is dropped into the bucket of cold water.

By: Jim Kurtti

Jim Kurtti — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:55:02 +0000

We have a large bag of melted tin from previous New Years. Is it possible to find a mold for horseshoes and reuse the tin?

By: Mia

Mia — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:43:47 +0000

It really is such a lovely custom, our kids enjoy it so much too. At the end of the year I know most groceries stores in Finland tend to sell the kits, but not sure where you could get them elsewhere… When I haven’t had the horse shoes or the standard ladle available while living abroad, I’ve just bought tin solder wire from a hardware store and a metal ladle with as thin a base as could find. You can then just cut a piece of the tin wire, fold it onto the ladle, melt it and drop into a bucket of cold water – works the same. I hope you’ll give it a go!

By: joanie goldberg

joanie goldberg — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 02:19:41 +0000

i did this as a child (40 years ago) and would love to introduce custom to my own children. where can i purchase a kit–any ideas? thanks for your help!