I’ve learned a lot about copper and tin in the course of using and cleaning my vintage pots and pans and I hope my experiences can help you use and care for yours. (If you’re looking for advice on buying vintage French copper, please check out my Buyer’s Guide.)
Cleaning & maintenance
Vintage French copper pots and pans will last for centuries with some basic care. Here are the posts I’ve written with advice based on my own experience.
Stuff I use
These are the products I’ve chosen for my copper. (These are not paid endorsements and any product links in these posts are just normal links like you’d get from a friend.)
Retinning
Owning and using tinned copper means you might have to retin a piece now and then. Here are a few highlighted posts.
- I wrote To retin or not to retin? for the process of buying a piece online, but I think it might also be helpful for evaluating tin in general.
- Picking a good tinner is about just that — questions you should ask when deciding whether to send your copper to a particular shop. (It’s an excerpt from Bad tin below.)
- Bad tin is a cautionary tale of my experience working with a less-than-professional retinner.
- A tale of character loved and lost is another cautionary tale about an over-exuberant polishing job.
All “Retinning” posts
Here are all the posts I’ve organized into this category.
