How It’s Made
At Salisbury, craftsmanship isn’t just a job—it’s a calling. Our skilled artisans bring deep expertise and dedication to every piece they create, using methods that honor our past while shaping the future of American design.
Spinning
One of the oldest techniques in metalworking, spinning transforms flat discs of pewter into three-dimensional forms like cups, bowls, trays, and jewelry boxes. Our spinners work with custom tools and molds called “chucks,” shaping each piece by hand on a lathe with incredible precision. It takes up to a decade of training to master this technique—an artistry passed from one generation to the next.
Casting
We create our smaller products and components through the process of centrifugal casting. The process is part science, part art. Molten pewter is poured into spinning, vulcanized rubber molds that are created in-house by our mold and modeling artists. The hot metal flows into the design area and the air is forced out of the existing channels that are cut into each mold. After the molten metal cools and becomes solid, the pieces are removed, sharp edges are ground down and items are sent to the tumbling room. There, they are placed in large machines and tumbled with millions of ceramic beads until the surface of the metal is smooth.
Soldering
When the metal-spinning is finished, solderers permanently piece together the spun components using a lead-free solder. They attach bases to cups, handles to trophies, spouts to teapots, and add countless other details to the line. If the product is created from flat, pressed sheets of metal, like picture frames, baby spoons and small trays, they are then sent to skilled machinists, who use Salisbury’s hydraulic presses and drop hammers with metal forms to force the flat sheet into a new shape, creating beautiful heirloom-quality gifts.
Polishing
After the products have been spun, hammered, pressed and soldered, they go on to one last process: finishing. Finishing is truly what sets our pewter and sterling products apart from all others. These fine artisans take the nearly completed products and buff them over and over. This removes any scratches or manufacturing marks, leaving items with a brilliant, bright, mirror-like finish.
Engraving
We engrave all our products in-house. We can curate whatever your vision may be and always make sure it is to your liking. We engrave with our extensive selection of fonts and designs to create a beautiful, personalized keepsake. We also do traditional hand-engraving, a true artform. These artisans are remarkably skilled and create one-of-a-kind artwork on each piece.
Inspection
Finished products then go through a strict inspection for quality control. We hold our products to the highest quality standards and our inspectors have a keen eye for every detail. Products that pass our rigorous inspection are either packaged for shipping around the world or sent to the engraving department where we add any type of personalization imaginable.
