Identifying lead ingots and slugs

[Fergie]

Hey all,

I'm cleaning out the basement so I can get better access to my furnace, and came across a coffee can full of these slugs, and a few of these hexagonal ingots.

I'm 99% sure the ingots are lead, but am unsure of the slugs. Can anyone shed some light on this or is there a way to test the material to verify it is lead?

Thanks
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[Springfield]

The hexagonal ingot is plumbers lead, very soft. Theo others I have never seen before.

[NyFirefighter357]

The SJ is soft plumbing lead. The slugs you need to be more careful, but if they are soft I'd say lead as well. Can you scratch them?

[lightman]

I agree, the ingot is probably soft lead, typically sold for plumbing uses. The pellets are anyones guess. An XFR test will be about the only way to know for sure.

[Rich/WIS]

Have some foundry type from Roto Metals that look like those slugs, but no way to tell what you have without an analysis.

[Dusty Bannister]

If you have an arbor press and a small ball bearing you could make a comparison test by placing the ball between the two sample flat surfaces and apply sufficient pressure to leave an indent in both samples. The larger indent is the softer material. Beyond that, an XRF test by BNE would be best.

[Fergie]

Thanks all for the info regarding the mystery metals!

The slugs; I can scratch those fairly easily, and they mash down easy w few taps from a 3# sledge.

[RogerDat]

+1 on the hex puck ingot is plumbers plain lead. For the slugs pool hydrochloric acid will react with zinc. It bubbles on zinc so no bubbles you can rule out zinc. If it is really soft I would doubt it has zinc content.

You might put some calipers on those slugs. They may be slugs used with swaging to make bullets using pressure. The slugs would be specific sizes used for specific calibers if that was the case. Maybe a swager can weigh in on what sizes and alloys they use. I only know of one alloy and that was soft lead for 38 that was intended to be pressed into a partial jacket I think.

[RogerDat]

I might add that if those are slugs of lead for swaging the people who make bullets that way would value them more than their value as plain lead. There is a swaging forum here for the people that use that process.

I swapped some caliber specific lead "wire" for some solder with one of them at one time. We were both happy with the deal.

[NoZombies]

The lead 'slugs' look like lead crushers for ballistics testing to me.

[Fergie]

The slugs all measure between 1"-1.1" in length and .69"-.73" in diameter.

[kevin c]

Have some foundry type from Roto Metals that look like those slugs, but no way to tell what you have without an analysis.

The slugs all measure between 1"-1.1" in length and .69"-.73" in diameter.

Rotometals has what I was told is a custom built automated "nugget" casting machine for some of their lead products like five pound bags of pure, hardball and SuperHard, though I only see the pure in that form on the website at the moment. The nuggets of various alloys I got from them are all the same diameter except the tin, which is cut wire, not cast. The nuggets can be irregular in other dimensions and mine (a couple years old now) were bagged up with a lot of what looks like spatter from the machine (presumably the same alloy).Unless their nugget caster got a major upgrade, the slugs in question seem way too consistent to be something from Rotometals.