What makes my boolits shiny forever?

[Petander]

Just wondering what the contaminant might be.

These are 15 year old boolits, I have hundreds of these in various calibers,all shiny. My ingots are shiny as well, they are WW with 30-50% linotype,harder is for rifles. All casts fine and easy.

Acid clean (HCL) makes them look like the one in the middle, very good for Hi-Tek coating. I'm just curious what makes the shiny,steel-like look in the first place. Zinc is a strong possibility, I remember removing an occasional zinc weight in the smelting pot when I cleaned a ton 15 years ago.

Thanks.

Attachment 224354

[dondiego]

I would think that the tin (Sn) in the linotype is keeping it shiny.

[lightman]

I agree, most likely the tin content.

[brass410]

lotsa tin my friend lotsa tin. I have some ingots that were accidentaly cross contaminated with high content body solder by my kind hearted helper (swmbo) I left to deal with the phone while smelting wheel weights, when I turned back around the last half dozen bars of 18 were disappearing into the pot, oh the other stuff was all melted so I added some more for you was her reply. Thanks dear what would I do with out your help. I have 50 ingots that are so shiny you can almost shave in the reflection.

[JSnover]

They sure do look great but I think I'd add some Pb to that lot. A buddy of mine casts purty, shiny boolits at 10::1 lead::tin but that just makes them more expensive than they need to be.

[Petander]

Now I see,it's tin reacting with HCL,right?

Makes sense,my linotype may have been monotype which has lots of tin. I didn't know much back then -Luckily I marked the %, some are 90%WW,some 70% and only a few are 50/50.

Time to smelt and clean some 22lr range scrap now and cook a new alloy for coating. I never thought there could be too much tin,thank you all.

[facetious]

I have some cast from a mix of 5lb of lino 1lb tin and the rest WW to make a bit over 100lb's. I have some that were cast over 10 years a go that still look shiny.

[kevin c]

My home cast ingots aren't so old, but the pure lead and antimonial lead alloy ingots are getting just a bit dull after a year or so (stored indoors in dry conditions without high humidity). Many years old pure Pb ingots and scrap lead I got from an old time caster are quite dull. His pure tin ingots, though of a similar age, are just as bright as mine, recently picked up from Rotometals. His 50/50 bar solder from companies that haven't been in business this century are bright too.

[Tripplebeards]

Explains why my 16:1 mix using pewter makes my fresh cast boolits look like chrome.

[Mitch]

I would think the HCL is cleaning and could be etching a bit.Thus the dull bullets and better for PC

[Petander]

I would think the HCL is cleaning and could be etching a bit.Thus the dull bullets and better for PC

My thoughts and observations exactly.

And because HCL also reacts with Sn,making a nice porous surface even with no other contaminants to be removed I will routinely wash all my bullets from now on. I made a test melt with Magtech 9mm bullets and HCL reacted strongly.

I'm really impressed by Hi-Tek coating working perfectly with 45-70.

[Tripplebeards]

I have a scuffed off finning with 600 grit sand paper and have had beautiful, thick, even PC coating when tumbling afterwards so I can see where etching would benefit.

[Petander]

This is what I actually have:

Attachment 229693

[Uncle Grinch]

I have found that the casting temp also affects the finish. Hotter temp makes for duller looking boolits.

[Tom W.]

When I made a few from Nickel Babbitt they looked shiny. They were also light, as there isn't any lead in Nickel Babbitt. Then I realized that I was shooting almost pure Tin and stopped that nonsense. But that was many years ago when I was learning all by myself, no mentors around. I'm surprised I'm still alive. If I hadn't been following my load manuals closely I suppose it could have gotten ugly.....

[Lloyd Smale]

heat is the cause of frosty bullets. Linotype melts at a lower temp and you cast at a lower temp.

[Petander]

Yeah my ingots stay stainless steel looking as well.

I often cast at the edge of frosty, fits my pace with brass moulds. But this alloy is ridiculously shiny,no matter what cast temp.

[Tom W.]

Load them in Nickel Brass and put on your mask and white cowboy hat!

[Petander]

Load them in Nickel Brass and put on your mask and white cowboy hat!

Now that's a brilliant idea!

That sure will make an impression.

[kevin c]

My home cast ingots aren't so old, but the pure lead and antimonial lead alloy ingots are getting just a bit dull after a year or so (stored indoors in dry conditions without high humidity). Many years old pure Pb ingots and scrap lead I got from an old time caster are quite dull. His pure tin ingots, though of a similar age, are just as bright as mine, recently picked up from Rotometals. His 50/50 bar solder from companies that haven't been in business this century are bright too.

I just recently got some pure tin and 50/50 solder from a shooting associate. He said he'd had for some time, and had to dig it out of his garage and "hose off the dirt" before giving it to me. Unlike the stuff I'd gotten before, all this cache was dark grey, dull and rough textured to the point where it was hard to make out the markings.

Maybe this tin got too cold, and has started converting from the common and familiar beta or white metallic form of tin to the non metallic alpha or grey tin.