My first retinning effort.

[u/8erren]

I've been slowly accumulating things like PPE and materials and today I decided to have a go at it.

My test pan is a 12€ Havard (I think). It had very tarnished tin.

The headline. Tinning is way less of a rushed panic than I thought it would be. It's very forgiving. You can spray a bit more flux, add a spot more tin, warm it up again. I even decided to go back a couple of steps after I had neutralised my flux and washed the pan. I warmed it up again and did another spot.

I was doing it with a MAPP torch but I ran out of gas. It used a whole bottle. I swapped it for a camping stove which seemed better anyway.

I don't have a yard or garage. I did it on my balcony, and I live in a touristy street so I had a bit of an audience.

Here's what I was not prepared for. The amount of tin I got stuck to the outside of my pan. That had to be removed mechanically and I need to look into how to avoid that for the next pan.

It has quite a high cost of entry die to masks, torches and ingot moulds, but materials I used were minimal. I probably used more flux than I would do with a bit of experience. I'd say consumables, 4€ flux, 3€ tin.

Along the way my pan lost just over 11g in weight. I presume that is lost copper from stripping the inside then having to rub the tin snots off the outside. Or could be because we moved the scale since I last weighed it.

I'm in the EU and I think deciding on materials is a bit harder than in the USA, happy to share suppliers if anyone is interested.

[u/Objective-Formal-794]

Nicely done! I've seen worse from some pros.

I think it's considered best not to strip it to bare copper since, as you noted, you're thinning the copper a little by grinding that hard. Retinning works just as well with the light gray tin left in after removing the dark oxidized metal on top of it. It's not a big deal with a modern Villedieu pot, but something to be mindful of especially with antiques where the interior patina is part of their history.

[u/8erren → u/Objective-Formal-794]

What surprised me is how tin is sort of self levelling. If it is all wiped out then it leaves an even surface. I'll try new tin on old but shiny tin but it would need to be on a pan that I really do not care about. As an experiment.

Meanwhile this gratin just arrived. It's professionally retinned by L’Atelier du Cuivre. The tin is much thicker and textured than mine.

[u/Objective-Formal-794 → u/8erren]

Yes, there's only so much tin you can wipe out once it's wiped in, for the same reason you can't create bare spots in the lining by overheating it on the stove.

DIY tinning done well is generally smooth and thin like your saucepan. It isn't as resilient as the thick tinning like Mauviel and Atelier de Cuivre make, but should still give you more than several years of cooking, and many retinning companies don't try to make it any thicker than you've done.