Old ingots - What do the stamps mean?

[Harry]

I have these old small ingots that I would like to know the metallurgy content. They were my dads from back in the late '50s. He was into casting at that time. I recently took it up. Now I am slowing down. Since I have enough wheel weights to last my life, I won't nee these. One I know. It is stamped Block Tin. I have 17lbs. of those. The second is stamped 10/1. Could this be a lead to tin ratio? There is 38lbs of those. The third is my big question. It is stamped 2/10. There is 20lbs of those. Would this then be a ratio of 2 lead to 10 tin? What would be the use of this ratio?
I may have to try to find someone with an analyzer.

Thank you for any help.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

While not heard much anymore, "Block tin" is a common term for pure (or near pure) Tin, term typically used by metals scrappers.

http://www.metalworld.com/specs/gr013601.html

[Green Frog]

While the "normal" convention is to put the tin second and the lead first in these ratios, different folks follow their own convention. Not knowing your father or the context of his marking those ingots, I would say you need to take one of each to a scrap yard that has one of those new whiz-bang "guns" that can be used to spot analyze their content. At least you are fortunate to only have a few different markings to decode (assuming that he was consistent with his markings.)

A thought that occurred to me as I typed... maybe those blocks really are 2 parts lead to 10 parts tin... he could have made them up to make it quicker to make some specific alloy he liked (say with linotype or wheel weights?) See, you never know without the context.

Froggie

[lightman]

Since your Dad was meticulous enough to mark those ingots, I wonder if he left a legend anyplace? Like in his loading records? There is a member on here, BNE, that will test it for you. He gets busy at work, at times, but is usually pretty quick. He trades his test for a pound of lead. Quite a deal in my opinion!

[Harry]

Thank you all for your replies. If my dad kept records, I have never seen any, unfortunately. I was a kid when he was doing his thing, and I had no interest. Also, he was one to tell me to go play and don't bother him while loading. I now know that was good advice to avoid mistakes. I never did see him actually mixing and pouring ingots. I will try to locate a local scrap yard with one of the "whiz-bang" analyzers.

[Harry]

Thank you for the link, JonB.

[Whitespider]

Something that might give you some idea is to calculate the volume of an ingot in cubic inches and then weighing it.

The density of lead is 0.40976 pounds per cubic inch (6.55609 ounces)... an ingot of pure lead measuring 4.25 cubic inches would weigh awful darn close to 1.75 pounds (.40976 lbs x 4.25 = 1.74148 lbs) or nearly 28 ounces (6.55609 oz x 4.25 = 27.8633825 oz).

Where as the density of tin is 0.26246 pounds per cubic inch (4.19944 ounces)... pure lead is approximately 1½ times the density of pure tin.
*