Hammer out your own pewter beside the world's largest tankard
1,557 kilograms of tankard
Royal Selangor has made pewter in Kuala Lumpur since 1885. The visitor centre in Setapak covers the foundry, the history of Malaysian tin, and a hands-on workshop.
Why it's unique
The centenary tankard, made in 1985, is 1.987 metres tall, weighs 1,557 kilograms and would hold 2,796 litres, and it has toured Canada, Australia, Singapore and China since.
But the tankard is a photograph. What makes this worth an afternoon is the School of Hard Knocks, where you are given a pewter disc, a wooden mallet and the same traditional tools the foundry uses, and you hammer out your own dish. It comes out lumpy. You keep it. A working factory that turned its craft into something you do rather than something you watch is rarer than the tankard is.
Before you go
Book the School of Hard Knocks separately and ahead — the factory tour is walk-in but the workshop has fixed slots and small groups.
It is about twenty minutes out from the centre and awkward on public transport; take a car. The tour itself is free, the workshop is not, and the workshop is the point.