What Type?

[Irascible]

I have a few hundred pounds of type from the local school. It is individual numbers, letters, and punctuation and was used in a hand set press. I think it is either mono or foundry type. How could I find out which? They are so close in hardness that casting bullets with it and testing hardness won't tell me. They have quite different percentages of tin and antimony, so alloying would be quite different. Any ideas on how to tell what I have?

[Scrounger]

If they are that close in hardness, what is the point in worrying about its' name? Soon it will just be bullets anyway.

[randyrat]

Here you are the best information site on the web. LOL
Monotype is what you have, it is measured in points and/or picas
Mono =8-18 points and is APROX-24-27 BHN
Mono=9% SN tin and 19% Antimony Sb
Foundry type = 18-72n points and can be harder yet
linotype= is a line of type melted together argo a line of type
lino.. = 4%Sn and 12% Antimony BHN of 18-19
All these numbers can vary by a great deal depending on who cast them and how long they wanted them to last or if they were short of alloying metals.
Most/lots of guys call it all Linotype

[cabezaverde]

I worked in the printing industry for a number of years when that stuff was used. If you can send or post a photo, I should be able to tell you.

[randyrat]

Some more info that came to mind.
Pica=.16 inch aprox
point=.013 inch aprox
******* Not used today in print media, this is the old method of measurment.....
******But then there are older methods also to measure picas and points. Things were changed by british,and i think French... Or changed by the Americans......... Which? Today i think the type faces are measured by the OLD OLD method.
So if you have type that is over a 1/4" or over18 points i think it is Foundry type...

[JohnH]

I had some of this once that after I smelted it into ingots tested out to 21-22 BHN which would be linotype hardness. If you have pure lead, smelt it at 1 to 1 and you will end with what is known as Lyman #2 alloy (15 BHN). Cut it at 1 to 2 with lead and it will be very close to WW.