Pewtering Equipment Suppliers

Harbor Freight Tools (There are serveral in Orange County) - Harbor Freight often has a decent 6 pack of "dental/carving" tools in stock for around $5.00 and also inexpensive wood carving tools (for also around $5.00). The wood carving tools are pretty much useless for wood, but they work great for soapstone carving. You can also purchase inexpensive files, saws and such for cutting up soapstone chunks for carving. Their quality is definitly not first rate, but you probably don't want to go dulling up you best hand saw cutting up a 35 lb chunk of soapstone into little teeny bits. The 3 main stores in Orange County that I know of are located near the following locations: near Goldenwest College in Huntington Beach (just a bit north of it on Goldenwest St); On Harbor Blvd in Garden Grove, just south of the 22 Freeway and the last is on Tustin Blvd, just south of the 22 Freeway (just before the 22/55 Freeway interchange). There are other stores in the Southern California area and you can find them by using the store locator tool on the main Harbor Freight website ( I have included a couple of links below).

Harbor Freight Tools Website

Harbor Freight Local Store Listing for California

Goldenwest College Swapmeet (on Saturdays) - The Goldenwest College "Swapmeet/Flee Market" is home to a great pewtering and pewter smithing resource "The Tool Guy" (Eric is his name). His booth is enourmous and is filled with around 20 three foot by eight foot tables festooned with oodles of great hand tools. He has a wide assortment of rotary tools (i.e. Dremel) both handheld and flex-shaft with a hanging motor (Fordham style) bits and accesories, including diamond bit, carbide and standard bits. His stock also includes a wide variety of jewelery/speciality pliers, jewlers hammers, small anvils, dapping dies, wire drawing plates, files (both standard and diamond coated), riffler files (both standard and diamond coated), ceramic tools (some good for carving soapstone) and cheap paint brushes. The big draw for use in his booth is the massive collection of "Dental" tools that he carries, you can find just about any type/shape of Dental tool know to mankind for $2.00 each. He also carries optical devices such as binoculars, mini-mag style flashlights and jewelers loupes, magnifying lenses and magnifying lense visors (with multiple lense sets from 1 power to 3.5 power).

The "big layout" is only there on Saturdays, on Sunday, the big layout normally travels to the Pasadena Swapmeet (at I believe the Rose Bowl). The Goldenwest Swapmeet runs from approx 6 a.m./ 7 a.m. to around 3 p.m. (when it shuts down). Eric's prices will blow you away and our description above, while extensive, still doesn't cover all of the stuff he carries. We have included a map that shows the approximate location of his booth. Tell him that Tim and Christine (the folks who cast Pewter) sent you..

Pearl Art & Craft Supply Inc ( 7227 Edinger Ave #A & #B, Huntington Beach, CA 92647 ) - Located about 1 block east of the GWC Swapmeet, Pearl is a bit more "high end" with a larger emphasis on the "Art" supply. They carry a variety of Dremel and hand tools, inlcluding pliers, various carving tools, some soapstone (but you should really buy your soapstone elsewhere), crochet cord, silk painting, gold leafing (both composite and REAL gold leaf) casting supplies (plaster, silicone RTV), faux enamaling supplies and a huge variety of brushes, paints. The tend to be pricer than Michael's and they are definitely more expensive than the tool guy, however Pearl has stuff they don't (such as the gold leafing). It is well worth a visit when you are in the area and you may just find the "perfect" tool/supply for you other hobbies.

Pearl Art and Crafts Supply Website

Michael's Arts and Crafts ( 7600 Edinger Ave # A, Huntington Beach, CA 92647 ) - Located about two to three blocks east of the Goldenwest Swapmeet. Michael's carries nifty wood boxes, transfer paper for marking your designs on your soapstone, some dental tools, Faux/Low Temperature Enamaling paints, Crochet cords (great for site favor cords), buttons (for impression molds in cuttlefish bone) and a host of general Art's and Crafts supplies to feed your muse.

Michael's Arts and Crafts Supply Website