Royal Selangor and School of Hard Knocks

It was my new friend’s birthday and I wanted to do something that she would really enjoy.

She and her family live in another country and they were in Malaysia because her husband needed knee surgery.

The were staying close to us and we met through another friend.

Even though she was much younger......not much older than my own children.......we had so much in common.

She was good for me......she got me out driving around the city doing things I would never do by myself.  She was sent here by God to help me be adventuresome, get beyond my small little community, learn to drive on my own, to help me laugh and to help me get back my joy.......Thank you Jesus that you do give us the desires of our heart!!!!

Anyway....back to her birthday.  I knew there was someplace I had not been and wanted to go and I thought she would like it to.

The Royal Selangor Pewter Company and their School of Hard Knocks.

I was right......she was delighted.

She went to lunch at a local eatery, O’Brien’s, a sandwich place.

If I had to compare their sandwiches to a place in the US, I would have to say they would more kin to Panera type sandwiches.

We then headed to downtown KL....which the help of a GPS of course.  She did the driving......I was not that adventurous at the time.  Little did I know while she was driving that she was just as nervous as I was about going that far by ourselves in this horrible traffic in KL.

She did a great job!!!!!

The visitor center at Royal Selangor did a great tour and our tour guide was very knowledgeable.

Let me tell you some facts about Royal Selangor Pewter Co.:

It was founded in Malaysia in 1885 and is still owned by the founding family

It used to make items used mainly for ceremonial purposes:

joss stick holders, incense burners, candle stands used for altars of Chinese homes and temples

When the British colonials were in Malaya, they expanded to offer tankards, ash trays and tea services.

In 1970, the company started to export items to Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia and began diversifying into design, manufacturing and marketing of precious jewels and sterling silver.

Around 1980, their market expanded to Europe and Japan.

In 1992, Selangor Pewter changed its name to Royal Selangor to reflect the endorsement from HRH the Sultan of Selangor.

We were taken on a tour of the factory:

 this is an old piece of money.  The round circles represented a certain amount and they were broken off and used to pay for items.

 these are huge vats that are used to transport the materials in making pewter.

 very fine shavings....reminds me of steel wool shaving except that it was said they are soft and do not cut or splinter off into your fingers

 a very old teapot

  the Petronas Twin Towers......a 2 story replica made entirely of 7,062 pewter tankards

Malaysia used to be a major supplier of tin to the world with it being a major contributor to its economy.  In fact, Kuala Lumpur ad its origins in the the tin mining industry.

Our tour also included different aspects of the pewit production process:

casting, filing, polishing, soldering, hammering and engraving


We got to go to several stations and watch the pewter being molded, shaved, polished, hammered and soldered.

This is the molding process.  

shavings from the etching below

amazing how they can do this and keep the lines straight

 tool they use to etch onto the pewter

 tiffany and I trying our hand at getting the hammered look....it is sure harder than it looks!

 soldering the bottom onto the tankard

 a bird’s eye view of the floor

I would love to have that piece.


Now onto the

this was so much fun!!

 This room will hold about 75 hammer welding students.....I cannot imagine the noise level when the room is full.  Thankfully it was just Tiffany and me in there today

 We used these alphabet pieces to hammer our initials on the bottom

Tools of the trade

this is the piece of pewter we started with

the professional teaching us how to hammer the pewter piece while in the bowl and moving it around at the same time

 Here we are hard at work

 halfway through the pounding process....it was done n the large bowl and then we turned the block around and hammered it in a smaller bowl

 The final products

 We are proud of our final product

 We are now graduates of the School of Hard knocks!!

 It was sent home in a very nice box.....

The large tankard outside Royal Selangor is recorded in Guinness Book of Records as the world’s largest.
It weighs 3,433 lbs (1,557 kg)
It is 3,085 yards high (1,987 meters)
It holds739 gallons (2,796 liters)


I think my friend Tiffany had a great day.....I know I sure did and I have a souvenir to remind of our newly found friendship, especially since she and her family have gone back to their country of residence.  
Miss you Tiffany!


till next time.......