Tripped across this lil pot today..

[HawgBonz]

..Rummaging around a flea market. Not sure if it's actually useable for casting. Sez "Reproduction from original old bullet mold ladle" on the bottom and "VARD Inc" on the top of the handle. It's kinda lightweight feeling. And someone has put rubber feet on it. Looks like someone may have at least tried to cast innit before.
Just curious if anyone has input on what it is or it's purpose in life.
If nothin else I figgered it'd make some neat lil kitch for the shop..
There's one very similar on Etsy.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/6880037...sr_gallery-1-8
Thanks.. d:^)

[Winger Ed.]

Cool.

Back in the wood burning kitchen stove days;
it'd find a good use for melting butter or shortening on the stove without burning it.
Or keeping something warm, but not exactly cooking it.

[44magLeo]

If it's cast then it should be able to melt lead. I might try for a dipper in a large pot, like when rendering scrap lead into ingots.
Or maybe just clean it up and hang on a wall.
You can always tell visitors that's what you started your casting career with.
Leo

[farmbif]

ive got something like that, cast iron without the legs, found it in the scratch and dent pile at the lodge store. about perfect as a Big Dipper

[HawgBonz]

If it's cast it's mighty light. But it sure does have somethin innit looks like lead traces like in my big melting pot.
Also picked up a nice big ladle with pour spouts on both ends and a long handle.
Guy had all kinds of old tools. Bout the only place in the joint worth rummagin' that I saw. d:^)

[jdfoxinc]

The legs were for setting into the coals of a fire. Your repro is probably cast aluminum. The original was cast iron.

[HawgBonz]

The legs were for setting into the coals of a fire. Your repro is probably cast aluminum. The original was cast iron.

It feels more like aluminum tan cast for sure.. But seems to be a strange thing to replicate like that for decoration. d:^)

[Winger Ed.]

If it is Aluminum, I check around a bit before I melted lead in it.

I've never done it,
but I've heard there's a few stories around about Aluminum pots melting if ya get them really hot.

[HawgBonz]

If it is Aluminum, I check around a bit before I melted lead in it.

I'm thinkin it's gonna hasta settle for being kitch in the shop on a nail. I've got better stuff to melt with. d;^)

[Green Frog]

It looks like it has a heavy patina (read “rust”) so it isn’t aluminum. I’m going to guess it’s a relatively thin cast iron, but I’m just going from a couple if pictures on the Inter-Web!

Froggie

[swamp]

If it is iron it will be magnetic. Easy to find out.
swamp

[Wayne Smith]

And aluminum doesn't melt at near lead melting temperatures, it gets soft and slumps. Still not what you want in a lead pot.

[HawgBonz]

I almost forgot till I got to sizing recent pics. This bugger was at the same place.
Looks like an old bottom pour melting pot..

[Gar10]

That’s a nice find!

[HawgBonz]

That’s a nice find!

I didn't get it. Wasn't sure if it was something useful for me.
But the pour spout is made into the pot IIRC. It wasn't modified.

[Winger Ed.]

This bugger was at the same place.
Looks like an old bottom pour melting pot..
]

Interesting. I've never seen one like it.
If it was made for melting Lead, I'd figure someone would have mentioned one, or we'd heard about them by now.

I'd think the spout on the bottom is too small for that anyway.
It might have been a pot used to separate or render something down back on the farm.
Boiling hog fat, then draining off the water to get the lard out of it maybe.


It'd be one of those things I'd buy if it was cheap, then research and find out what it really is,
then put it somewhere for when people come over and ask, "What's that"?
Or ask them, "Hey, have ya ever seen one of those before"?

[RichardB]

looks like part of an old cream separator

[Winger Ed.]

looks like part of an old cream separator

I was going to guess that.
But several relatives have been farmers & ranchers for generations, and I'd never seen one on any of their ranches
where they did all that pioneer stuff. Even in the barns where things went that weren't used any more.

Helping out with things, they'd sometimes mention a tool they didn't have by saying,
"This would be a lot easier if we had such and such".

As a kid, I've helped with all that milking and butter making kind of chores.
Never heard mention of one of those.

[armstrong]

I had one similar, made by Wilton

[ulav8r]

The cream separators I've seen did not have a cast iron pot, they were enameled steel.