Brittle lead plates ???

[PBSmith]

Last year I passed on a 200+ lb supply of "lead" at a yard sale. I could have had the stuff for $25 but I grew suspicious when I looked more closely.

This metal was with a couple of sinker molds, and I suspect the sinker caster didn't know or care what he was melting.

The lead was in the form of 1/2"-thick plates. It looked to me like the metal was quite brittle, at least the broken edges of the plates looked like brittle fractures.

Someone's going to say it might have been lino, and maybe that's true, but I don't know enough about lino to make an on-the-spot ID.

What ran through my mind was zinc. The metal was harder than any bullet alloy I've messed with.

Judging from the 1/2' plate format and the brittle character, does anyone have a clue about what I might have been looking at?

[skeettx]

Lead alloy
Lots of tin and antimony

[Dusty Bannister]

Check to rotometals site and see if perhaps it might look more like zinc anodes for salt water use. Given the long past lost deal, and since only you saw the items and give little information as to size, weight and shape, rather hard to give better suggestions.

[lightman]

Brittle could have been Linotype. Usually zinc contaminated alloy has a galvanized look to it. Patches of different colors of gray and silver like a camo pattern. Don't kick yourself, its hard to tell but experience does help. I probably would have bought it because 200# for $25 would make it easy to sell and recover your money. Thats my criteria for pricing unknown scrap. I might have even offered less, citing an unknown alloy.

[Carrier]

For $25.00 I would of taken the chance.

[Geezer in NH]

Yep at 12 1/5 cents a pound for sure If it turns out to be zinc sell to the bone yard and break even or make a tiny profit.

[jonp]

Someone gave me some square chunks of "lead" last year as he knew I casted and had them behind the garage. At first glance they looked like lead but when I put some muriatic acid on them I found them to be zinc. Makes great garage door stops and I gave several to a friend of mine to put on his lead sled.

[kevin c]

Not every dubious find turns out bad. I melted a funny looking block that clearly was made up of multiple pours and ended up with some weird, bubbly and lumpy ingots. Thought I had a zinc contamination, but BNE found it was lead with a very high concentration of antimony and tin.

[leebuilder]

I have a bunch of plates my buddy gave, they were ballest plates screwed to various parts of a wooden boat. I could tell they were not zinc, just bending and scratching them, smacking them together too.
Anyway they make good boolits, not sure why it is, but its life in a skunky bilge may of added to the sad appearance and brittleness when they were scavenged.
Acid test, test in pot ie melting temp and pouring ability.
Or xrf testing
Be well

[big bore 99]

Next time try scratching them with your thumbnail or key.

[shortlegs]

solder?