Antique Peugeot pepper mill, OR medieval mace!?

[Neyxous]

Check this out.... 5+lb 20" Peugeot pepper mill trimmed in pewter. Never had a single peppercorn in it. Likely from the 60's.
I actually need some advice. This was given as a trophy and is engraved. As this is not a plated metal, can it be removed and restored like ppl restore knifes with sandpaper and polishing?

 

[Neyxous]

 

[parbaked]

Keep the engraving...it's provenance.

 

[Neyxous]

Hmmm, you know... I considered that. I actually tracked this down to a country club 1200 miles away from me, ACROSS THE STREET from where I've had 140hrs of tattoo work done in Hartford. Small world. I'm in the process of tracking down the exact year as I've found relatives of the recipient.
I am just try to see what my options are. It's not staying totally stock for sure as I will polish the pewter back to original. Typically I'm a patina guy, but in this case it just really looked old and neglected, not ripe with age if that makes sense. It's in amazing shape so less is definitely more for this piece. Maybe I will just leave it. It would also be pretty labor intensive I would imagine. Might turn out like poo... that would totally suck.

 

[Bensbites]

It would a ton of work to do that without a lathe.

 

[Neyxous]

See, I was wondering that. I figured you couldn't just free hand it with a belt sander..
Heh

 

[Neyxous]

I ALMOST don't want to put peppercorns in. *Almost*
Peugeot's grind pepper unlike anything else. Salt grinders too.
This thing is absolutely preposterous though.. lol

 

[Neyxous]

Oh, and it's a Borel with a Peugeot mill in it..
Boardman pewter.

 

[Dendrobatez]

Engraving is easy to remove on pewter if you go that route. If you want to keep it then your best bet is to no use anything more abrasive than steel wool and brasso or bar keepers friend.
For metals like this I actually prefer to not use abrasive chemical cleaners, 3m polishing papers would work very well here.

 

[Neyxous]

So, yeah- great idea. I had some 000 steel wool and that really cleaned it up nice without really altering the surface. Left a "good" patina of sorts.
Thanks!