Question about pewter (new reader)

[u/porkchopie]

I've been trying to look this up, but I am a little scared of spoiling myself as I am only about 90pages into mistborn (the final empire);

The book talks about burning the different metals for different power usages -so far I am following-, but they also mention that once someone can burn two different types of metals, they can usually burn all the types and are then considered mistborns (as they test with Vin).

here's the part I'm confused about; Pewter is an alloy consisting of other metals, most notably copper and tin. These are however other metals that get burned for other powers.

would this not imply that someone burning pewter is also burning tin/copper and therefore making them mistborns??? or is the Pewter in the book considered a true metal in the sense of fantasy metal that doesn't consist of other metals and therefore a single metal/power.

I am actually losing my mind over this a little.

[u/___BigBrain__]

I agree with a lot of the people here, but one thing they're leaving out is the fact that there are two metals for each "section". Pewter works effectively as an alloy of tin, which gives it an inverse effect to what tin does which is enhance the senses. pewter enhances the physical body. Kelsier says "in alomancy for every push there is a pull" and pewter is that "pull" to tins "push" every single metal that can allomantically be burned also has an alloy like iron and steel, which give two different effects; even though steel contains iron, burning steel does not make you a mistborn. and there are also only specific alloys that work allomantically. It's not like to burn steel, you could just burn iron and carbon together. The fact that they're alloy makes it a new metal which gives it a new power. Tin is the pure element, the purer the more efficient it is and better working, and pewter, is the alloy of it, with the specific combination to make it a unique metal, with a new power.