Re: Alfa branded

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@domain.elided>]

Alan Lambert mentions, regarding the Alfa sausage maker that Luke found
on ebay:

> I too had never heard of "double tinning"---which ( I suspect ) had 
> Alfa done it long ago would have prevented a lot of rusty Alfa 
> hulks.

It probably would have, or at least made Alfas more sanitary.

"Tinning" refers to plating a piece of cookware with tin.  We have some
copper cookware, including a large stock pot, all of which is plated on
the inside (cooking) surface with tin.  Tin provides a more
acid-resistant surface which does not corrode as the copper does (so it
probably would be a good solution for our cars), and it's also a smooth,
shiny surface which cooks and cleans up very well.  

Double-tinning is simply putting two layers of tin plating on the
underlying metal.  This would help ensure that the tin doesn't wear
through during the high pressures associated with a meat grinder and
sausage maker.

The tinned layer inside a cooking pot does wear over time, both from
chemical attacks and from mechanical wear from utensils.  When this
happens, the pot needs to be re-tinned, and must be taken to the
tinker.  Re-tinning is very much like soldering -- the piece is heated
up sufficiently to melt the tin (both new and old) till it flows onto
the surface.  To keep the liquid tin in the are that is being worked on,
the tinker would often make a temporary, disposable dam out of paper or
straw, just high enough to hold the molten tin in the area under
repair.  This would be thrown away after one use, hence the saying that
something of little value "isn't worth a tinker's dam." 

Now, an Alfa that had been properly tinned would look very cool even
without paint.  That's something I'd like to see.  Not enough to do it
to one of *my* cars, but I bet a Spider that had been tinned would look
like Queen Amydala's spaceship.  My three-year-old son, at least, would
think that was cool.

Beeswax and wooden paddles, anyone?

 --Scott Fisher

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