joebill
11-25-2012, 09:25 PM
Hello, all!
I'm a newby here, and although I have cast a few boolits on and off for years, I have never really made an in-depth study of it like you folks obviously have. I registered hours ago to ask a question, but have been reading a lot of interesting stuff here since then and almost lost track of what I was here for.
Years ago, I traded for about 200# of what was billed as "pewter belt buckles" knowing that if it truly was pewter, it had a lot of tin in it, which is pretty usefull and expensive stuff. I cast some assorted boolits from it and they did fine, except the maxi-balls which were too hard to get down the tube of my 50 cal muzzle-loader. I mostly cast from WW, and have enough to go a looong time without needing more, so I figured if I could really ID this stuff, I could pour it into ingots and take it to a gun show I am doing in a couple of weeks. I have no way of really testing it, but the following are my observations about it, and any hints would be appreiciated.
1. a mold that makes a 230 grain slug from WW makes a 223 grain slug from this stuff.
2. it is malleable enough to allow me to hammer said 45 cal. slug on my anvil to 1/8" thickness before it starts to crack at the lube grooves just like the one from WW metal.
3.Leaves the same gray streak on paper as WW metal when rubbed across it.
4. Makes a truly lovely boolit, so shiney and slick that it looks chrome plated, and by looking closely I can see the tiny mill marks left in it by the tool that made lee's mold. If the mold were mirror finished the slug would be the same.
5. After aging a few days on both ingots it's harder then WW metal by a fair amount. Ingots crushed together in a vise, one from WW metal and the other from mystery metal, the WW ingot suffers almost all the damage.
I am aware that none of this is scientific, and it would be easy to call it "pewter", since that's what I traded for it as, but the title does not always mean what it's supposed to, and I don't want to mislead anybody at the gun show. I know that pewter is often faked and I have never really messed with any of it. I figured if anybody had experience with real modern pewter, they might give me a hint if it acts like the above description. Thanks a lot, in advance.....Joe
I'm a newby here, and although I have cast a few boolits on and off for years, I have never really made an in-depth study of it like you folks obviously have. I registered hours ago to ask a question, but have been reading a lot of interesting stuff here since then and almost lost track of what I was here for.
Years ago, I traded for about 200# of what was billed as "pewter belt buckles" knowing that if it truly was pewter, it had a lot of tin in it, which is pretty usefull and expensive stuff. I cast some assorted boolits from it and they did fine, except the maxi-balls which were too hard to get down the tube of my 50 cal muzzle-loader. I mostly cast from WW, and have enough to go a looong time without needing more, so I figured if I could really ID this stuff, I could pour it into ingots and take it to a gun show I am doing in a couple of weeks. I have no way of really testing it, but the following are my observations about it, and any hints would be appreiciated.
1. a mold that makes a 230 grain slug from WW makes a 223 grain slug from this stuff.
2. it is malleable enough to allow me to hammer said 45 cal. slug on my anvil to 1/8" thickness before it starts to crack at the lube grooves just like the one from WW metal.
3.Leaves the same gray streak on paper as WW metal when rubbed across it.
4. Makes a truly lovely boolit, so shiney and slick that it looks chrome plated, and by looking closely I can see the tiny mill marks left in it by the tool that made lee's mold. If the mold were mirror finished the slug would be the same.
5. After aging a few days on both ingots it's harder then WW metal by a fair amount. Ingots crushed together in a vise, one from WW metal and the other from mystery metal, the WW ingot suffers almost all the damage.
I am aware that none of this is scientific, and it would be easy to call it "pewter", since that's what I traded for it as, but the title does not always mean what it's supposed to, and I don't want to mislead anybody at the gun show. I know that pewter is often faked and I have never really messed with any of it. I figured if anybody had experience with real modern pewter, they might give me a hint if it acts like the above description. Thanks a lot, in advance.....Joe