Any guess on what I have?

[Timb1]

Some time ago a buddy gave me some "lead" that a buddy gave him that worked at a phone company. Well I have about 10lbs of some nice shiny soft stuff that has me wondering what is it. I originally thought this is some kind of solder. I casted few boolits and that is when I started to scratch my head. The boolit were very shiny but the fill out wasn't great and when I put them on the scales they were about 5% heavier than WWs are. The sprues were kind of tuff to cut and when I checked the hardness with a Lee tester it came out to 6.8 Bhn. So what is?
Thanks Tim.

[Rick N Bama]

It's probably "Wiping Lead" or smelted cable sheath. Either way, it's good stuff for Muzzleloader boolits.

Rick

[nighthunter]

Timb 1 .... almost without a doubt you have almost pure lead. The telephone company used to use this at cable junctions. It came in large flat sheets that the cable splicer had to fit to the junction then he had to wipe the joint with hot melted lead to seal it from the elements. My father was a cable splicer for many many years and after the telephone company started replaceing the lead with aluminum and plastic he brought home a lot of lead for bullets. Treat what you have as pure lead.
Nighthunter

[Timb1]

I will agree that it is about as soft as lead but it has something that makes it very shiny and when you turm the heat up on it it doesnt change colors. Also it doesnt oxidize like lead, I had poured this stuff in ingots a year ago and it is still shiny.
Thanks Tim.

[Rick N Bama]

I think something was added to the lead to prevent oxidizing. I've worked around cable that had been in the air for 50 years or so that just had a dull sheen. Sometimes a white powder like substance was on the sheaths.

You got some good stuff there. Wish I had a ton, but I wasn't into casting when I had access to it.

Rick

[nicky4968]

They may have added cadmium or nickel (for some nefarious telephone company purpose). If they did, the addition of either would change the surface tension of the molten lead. This would account for the bullets not correctly filling out in the mold.
After all that, I don't have a solution if they are so contaminated. Nor do I know of a test that would tell you if that was what they added. I just remember reading in Nonte's book that that was a common problem long ago.