Ingot harness, best way to check?

[jaguarxk120]

Over the week end I went through about 200 pounds of lead, picked up at a estate sale.
Some was spent air rifle pellet's, two three pound coffee cans full. Also melted lead in bars formed in angle iron.
All of this was remelted and poured into my Lyman ingot mold.

Question is best way to check hardness of ingots, I have a LBT tester.

[William Yanda]

Hardness of ingots is immaterial. While melted, pour a bullet and check that. If you are set up to do so, you could check melting point of alloy.

[jaguarxk120]

My problem is, some ingots are lead that I know, but it is the ones of mixed alloy.

I shoot a older 45 Colt replica and it has 454 chamber throats, it does poorly with hard bullets. I don't want to make up a bunch for 45's having to remelt to change alloy.

[lightman]

Well, the hardness of the ingot can give you an idea about the alloy. Not as exact as an XFR test but an idea. I'm not familiar with the LBT tester but I use my CabineTree tester. I usually wait a week and I test at more than one spot. Casting a bullet is another good way. The weight of the bullet compared to a bullet cast with a known alloy can also help.

[farmerjim]

I find that the cast boolit will be about 2 or 3 BHN above that of the ingot.

[jaguarxk120]

Thanks for the comments, I'll take what you guy's have said under consideration.

[Walter Laich]

I have a Cabine Tree tester but these days I just drop them on the concrete garage floor (not too high--don't want to break the concrete)

If I hear a 'thud' more than a 'clank' I'm happy to call that soft

I'm using it in 45 Colt cowboy shooting loads which are at the lower end of the powder chart--all you have to do it hit the steel not drive a hole through it

[jaguarxk120]

I generally shoot 8 grains of Unique under a 255 grain 454190 bullet.

If I want more power then the 44 comes out. But most of my loadings are on the light side.

[MaryB]

Send a sample to BNE with a pound of lead for the cost and have it XRF tested...

[GhostHawk]

Thumbnail makes a good guesstimate.

Soft lead will be gouged by a thumbnail.

Clip on Wheel Weight will gouge "some" but not as deep or as wide as soft.

Harder alloys may not gouge at all, may make just a shiny streak.

A little practice, read the sticky about drawing pencils of varying hardness used to test lead, or buy an expensive tester.

Me I just use my thumbnail.

[kevin c]

William Yanda's statements mirror the recommendations of Veral Smith, the maker of the LBT tester. The instructions included with my LBT specifically advised testing bullets cast from the alloy in question, not ingots, as the difference in cooling changes hardness.

[ikarus1]

Art pencils will tell yoy relative hardness pretty accurately, and there are pages and pages of posts on how to do it