Dutchboy 888

Hi All.

I have 4 round ingots of Dutchboy solder that's marked 888. I've seen them mentioned here before, but have yet to see anywhere what the composition of the 888 solder is. As a comparison I took an automatic centerpunch, and punched a brick of pure lead, an ingot of linotype, one of the 888 ingots, and a boolit cast from my Lyman #2 alloy. The punches in the pure lead were much larger than any of the others, as was expected. The linotype was the smallest of all, again as expected. What surprised me was that both the #2 and the Dutchboy were the about same size. Is it possible that the solder is fairly close to Lyman #2 in composition? I don't have any need to hang on to these Dutchboy ingots, and if I can use them, I will without a second thought to their history. I have linotype as well as 50/50 (lead/tin) in 1lb ingot sized ingots, and they both look much different than the Dutchboy ingots, which look much more 'lead' like than either of the other 2 alloys. Normally I wouldn't bother with them, but at the moment I'm all out of my Lyman #2 alloy, and as my only source of pure lead is in 26# bricks I normally mix it up in a dutch oven over a turkey fryer base. I just last week had surgery on my right hand, and while the doc said I can use the hand for 'light use', I don't really think mixing up 50# of alloy, and pouring it into ingot moulds really qualifies as light use. So I'm either going to use these dutchboy ingots, or just cast from pure linotype, something I would rather not do. I only have 4 of these, so it's really only going to get me one pot's worth of lead, but I haven't cast any boolits in more than a week, and I think I'm starting to undergo withdrawal!

Ancient thread I know but for others that may search Dutch Boy 888 is wiping solder. Dutch Boy literature from the 1930's doesn't identify it's composition content but wiping solder of the period was generally 40% tin, 60% lead. When I use this as 40/60 solder in my alloys, I get expected results.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MikeS

Hi All.

I have 4 round ingots of Dutchboy solder that's marked 888. I've seen them mentioned here before, but have yet to see anywhere what the composition of the 888 solder is.

---

Dutch Boy bar solder was available in eight grades (111 to 888) — each one of which was suitable for certain kinds of work and is designated by number. The composition of each was different (different amounts of tin, lead, and other additives). The composition was generally a guarded secret, but they sometimes mentioned the amount of tin. The grades with the lowest numerical designation contain the most tin; higher numbers had less tin.

Thus, the 111 solder had the most tin while the 888 had the least tin. I have not seen exactly how much tin it had, but I am pretty certain that it is less than 30% (that is because they list other solders with lower numbers that have 30% tin). Generally, there is at least 10% tin difference between different numbers, so I am guessing 20% tin in the 888.

I did find that 888 was identified in Dutch Boy literature as wiping solder which generally was 37-40% tin. The alloy I've been making using 888 as 40% tin has been coming out just as expected. Would anyone know what range of years Dutch Boy made those alloys in the round puck form? I am enjoying including lead and tin from perhaps the turn of the century to maybe the 1930's in my boolits.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Harry O

Dutch Boy bar solder was available in eight grades (111 to 888) — each one of which was suitable for certain kinds of work and is designated by number. The composition of each was different (different amounts of tin, lead, and other additives). The composition was generally a guarded secret, but they sometimes mentioned the amount of tin. The grades with the lowest numerical designation contain the most tin; higher numbers had less tin.

Thus, the 111 solder had the most tin while the 888 had the least tin. I have not seen exactly how much tin it had, but I am pretty certain that it is less than 30% (that is because they list other solders with lower numbers that have 30% tin). Generally, there is at least 10% tin difference between different numbers, so I am guessing 20% tin in the 888.

---

I used a metal analsys gun at work on mine. Pb 75% sn 22.5 sb 2.5

I have one of these `pucks` on my loading table as an paper weight, always thought it looked kinda neat.Robert

Attachment 233595

Me, too !

Yeah I find it hard to melt pieces of our industrial history. Use a Babbitt ingot as a weight to counter balance powder throw on its base. Have some Bell System Seam solder used by Bell Telephone to solder the seams of underground lead sheathed phone cable. Not going to melt it. Along with some Bell Wiping Solder ingots. And of course my "Doe Run" stamped lead ingots :-) I wouldn't melt those Dutch Boy solder pucks short of zombie apocalypse or civil war.

On the other hand pewter that isn't an actual antique is just calling to me to melt it no matter how pretty it is. Puddle me it cries. Please puddle me. So I do.