On the Job: Salisbury Pewter

Shiny cups, customized engraved plaques, or holiday ornaments, Salisbury Pewter makes it all, and most of it from scratch! Creating and shipping out to places such as Tiffany, government agencies, and other businesses around the world, they’ve always got their hands full with work.

In business for the last 36 years, the company started in Salisbury, but then moved to Easton in 1998. Today there are about 25 workers in the factory and about 12 people who work in the offices and showroom.

Our first job for the day, making some holiday ornaments. For this, they use a big rotary casting machine. And the pewter can get pretty hot, about 250 degrees, so gloves are required. First you have to set your mold in the casting machine, securing it down with a pressure plate. After the lid is closed, the casting machine will spin at 600 RPM’s for about a minute. After time is up, you lift the lid, take out the mold, and open it up to see how it turned out.

Next, we headed over to the next station, engraving. Salisbury Pewter can engrave just about anything you ask them to, including plaques. Polcak says Salisbury Pewter engraves about 3 to 10 thousand items a month.

Our last job of the day, inspecting and boxing some Jefferson cups! The first thing that needs to be done is a close inspection of the cup to make sure there are no scratches or dents. After it is deemed perfect, its time to roll! The last step in the process is boxing the cups in a personalized Salisbury Pewter box, sticking on an item bar code, and stacking them up for shipment.

Next week On the Job,47 ABC heads to Dazzle in Ocean Pines where shes going to be helping out the personalized gift wrapping team.