Question about lead types

[MikeACP]

Sort of. I didn't know how to word the question. I have ingots that I've bought from people. I will have ingots that I've smelted. Do you guys seperate these or mark these? Would they all go in a pile to be casted? I mean they are all going to become bullets.

[RobS]

I separate by known alloy ingots. If I have alloys that I don't know exactly what's going on then I'll test their BHN hardness and put them into groups. I have a large smelter that I'll remelt the same or very similar BHN ingots into smelt batches and then store the larger batches.

[captaint]

I did some smelting this afternoon. Melted all the WW's, good... Melted all the lead pipe and other fairly pure...good. Then I had 6 of these "soupcan shape ingots" that I've had for some time. Don't even remember where I got them. Somebody gave them to me. Anyhow, I'm really glad I saparated them when melted. They're really hard and have a goldish tinny look. Gonna have to take them to a scrapyard to get them checked out. I really don't know what they are. They're not zink or anything nasty. We shall see.... enjoy Mike PS.. always separate your stuff when you don't know for sure.

[MikeACP]

Thanks guys. Since these will be all ww lead, I can just seperate by hardness then.

[zomby woof]

I separate all my lead, WW, Mono, Lino, range scrap and misc. I've been blending and looking for a mix that works for me, mainly to stretch out my WW supply. I then make a batch of my blend, so every ingot I add to the pot is the same.

[lwknight]

Captaint, that wheat straw color indicates high tin content. Your ingots are probably solder of some sort.