Where is the Tin Man?

last weekend, on friday to be precise, i went to the public library to poke around and check out their fiber arts books. i Love the library, especially the downtown branch here in seattle, it is just so nice and open, and the librarians were very friendly and helpful. one mission i had was that i wanted to find books on dyeing so that i could better educate myself and hopefully get some better reds out of my dyes. i think i may be on the trail to a solution, quite literally. one book i found talked about using both copper and iron as a way to cause color shifts in your dyeing, i had hear about this before but always had the impression you had to use some fairly nasty chemicals to do so. this book said to just soak copper or iron in a mixture of equal parts vinegar and water, until the liquid changed color. that was a process i was much more comfortable with. then i came across a book that is called "The Red Dyes" and it says in regards to using both madder and cochineal, that a tin solution was added to make it dye scarlet. the tin solution that i read about though was tin dissolved in hydrochloric acid and nitric acid. neither of which sound like i really want them in my kitchen. so i decided to try soaking tin in the vinegar mix for an experiment. i ran to Value Village to paw through the kitchen wares. i picked out two pie pans that i thought might be tin, but that was when i realized i didn't really know how to tell tin from aluminum from steel even. i think tin is less porous, and is magnetic, and is light weight, and i'm not sure about if it rusts or oxidizes in some other way. if anyone knows anything about the identification of tin, please let me know.!