Recipe/availability for Repousse Pitch

First find on Google list for "repousse pitch":

# 6 parts chaser's pitch, 8 parts plaster of Paris or brick dust, 1 part linseed oil or tallow. Source: Metalworking Techniques for Craftsmen by Oppi Untracht.

# 4 parts roofing tar (the kind roofers melt in tar kettles), 3 parts pumice powder, 1 part turpentine, 1 part linseed oil. Melt tar in pan, stir in turps, add pumice. Let a small amount cool and adjust amount of linseed oil to get desired consistency. Source: My own recipe.

# Equal parts of beeswax and plaster of Paris. This is good for very thin, fully annealed non-ferrous metal worked shallowly. Again, my recipe.

When mixing any of the recipes for pitch, remember that some or all of the materials may be flammable and take appropriate precautions with regard to open flame, etc. It's a good idea to keep in mind that hot pitch sticks to you and keeps on burning much longer than is bearable, too.

Original Post from: From vicopper - anvilfire.com

Bruce-in-Bangkok (Note:remove underscores from address for reply)

Bruce,

Thanks for the recipes, but, I already have them. The problem that I am running into is finding any business that carries (and sells) chaser's pitch OR the roofing tar listed in these recipes.

Know of any handy sources?

Paul

Roofing tar has been an asphalt "tar" for at least the past 40 - 50 years and I suspect that is what is intended. I have no idea where you are but can you try some roofing contractors. Certainly they would know where some could be obtained, it is still used.

Bruce-in-Bangkok (Note:remove underscores from address for reply)

Try

for more details of roofing. Bruce-in-Bangkok (Note:remove underscores from address for reply)

Home Depot. Ask at the building supplies desk.

Roofing, in the Yellow Pages.

Expect to buy a five gallon bucket, and have to deal with getting it out.

Or drop by a construction or road repair site. Keep your eyes peeled for a smoking kettle of tar, and have a steel bucket with a lid that seals on hand.

Cheers Trevor Jones

There are a few things that you might wish to consider with the "roof" tar description. Are you thinking coal tar pitch, or asphalt. If asphalt are you using a formula for low slope, steep or steep/steep application? Different melting points and solid consistency for each.

As to a source you could try a roofing company or supply house catering to the "hot mop" crowd. Around here the road repair crews also use melted asphalt poured our of a watering type can to seal cracks.

Mike Graf

Prepared pitch is available from the jewelry suppliers.

Prepared black (asphalt) pitch is usually fairly soft and sticky. Red pitch is made from pine pitch, can be had in soft, medium and hard.

Red pitch is more expensive, and harder to find but lasts longer and works better.

If you want to go the cheap route, Find someone doing hot mop tar roofing. You can't miss them, they'll have a giant propane kettle melting blocks of asphalt and be toting it up to the roof in 5gal steel pails.

Show up with your own pail and a sixpack and mooch a gallon or two. The stuff is hard as flint when it cools , so follow the recipes in the other posts.

Also, realize that you do not need a layer of pitch much deeper than you need your workpiece to be. The bottom of my 8" pitch bowl has an inch and a half of lead topped with two inches of pitch. I probably could have used less pitch.

Paul K. Dickman

Here's an idea that I haven't tried it yet, but I was thinking that hard modeling clay/non-hardening plasticine clay would work well. It's cheap and should provide enough support. You can get hard/medium/soft varieties, too.

Hopefully someone has tried it and can say if it's actually useful or not.

I know this post is old now but for anyone browsing. I currently use plasticine/modeling clay. It does work. Not as efficiently as real pitch But in a pinch it's great. I put it in the freezer to harden it or hit it with a heat gun to soften.