What BHN is linotype

[dubber123]

My brother, (the dirty rat), scored 400 lbs. of alloy today. This is cast into various shapes, the only one with a name on it is ROTH. We tested a couple samples with an LBT tester, and it ran right at 14 BHN. Thats a little higher than our air cooled WW's, but not alot. I don't think it's lino, but have never dealt with any so I don't know. Any info is appreciated.

[Parson]

Good clean Lino should be right at 21

[JeffinNZ]

Sounds like No.2 alloy to me.

Either way it's a score.

[grumpy one]

Proper linotype is 22 BHN when air-cooled. If you look at a chart posted in another thread you can see what drives the hardness:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=14971

As you can see from the chart, if it has the correct amount of tin (4%) and antimony (12%) for linotype it is 22 BHN, but if all of the tin had oxidised away over time it would drop to 18 BHN. It is commonplace to find linotype with low tin, apparently usually due to long term oxidation in the linotype machine's lead pot (though there was also an el cheapo version of linotype with only 2% tin sometimes used).

14 BHN is what you get with air cooled alloys of about 4% antimony.

[454PB]

My linotype came in a 3000 pound lot. 90% of it was in the letter form, about 300 pounds in 22Kg. ingot form. The letter form runs anywhere from 22 BHN to 27 BHN, depending on the size. I've read that the larger letter forms are monotype, the smaller stings of full sentences are linotype..... "lines of type"

The ingots are a consistent 20 BHN to 22 BHN, and I believe these are either "virgin" or reconstituted linotype.

[dubber123]

Thanks guys, I thought it sounded a little soft for linotype, and figured it was safe to mix in with regular WW's. The BHN runs very close to what he has been shooting so we should be OK. Thanks again.

[Ken O]

This link has a lot of referance, check it out http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm

[dubber123]

Thanks, enough info to keep me reading for a while!

[joeb33050]

I got the original 1934 article "Type Metal Alloys" from which the chart of lead-tin-antimony BHN was copied into "Cast Bullets" sometime prior to 1980.
Frances D. Weaver says this about what's in type metals:
"Typical compositions of the various alloys, found by experience to give the best results.....

Alloy % Ant. % Tin
Monotype-ordinary 14-19 7-10
Monotype-display 16-24 8-12
Linotype 10-13 2-5
Intertype 11-14 3-5
Stereotype 13-20 2-10

I think that Frances knew (knows?) her stuff, and that linotype was an approximation-not precisely defined in 1934-when printers used hot type- and certainly not precisely defined now when few to no printers use or even remember hot type.
joe brennan

[dubber123]

Joe, thats alot of variation! That may explain some of the variation we see in different lots of alloy, not to mention with how long some of this stuff has been around, who knows how many times it has been reworked or mixed. Thanks.

[grumman581]

I just tested some linotype that I bought that was still in letter format. It worked out to be 16 BHN, but I'm not 100% confident in my testing method yet.

[hermans]

Mine usually come out at 22-24 measured with a Cabine Tree tester. Mostly from old letter casting.

[grumman581]

I also tested a ingot that I had cast from some unsorted wheel weights (mixture of stick-on and clip-on). The "ingot" was a 1.5 fl-oz stainless steel condiment cup from Wal-Mart. It came out as a 12 BHN which is right in line with what the LASC CastBulletNotes page (http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm) says for clip-on wheel weights.

[Kull]

Some ingots I cast from linotype pieces received from a forum member are right at 20.