Help me identify please.

[Lizard333]

I got this lead today from a printing press operator. It weighs in at ten pounds, and has the numbers 18 and 87 stamped into it, in that order. I can't scratch it with my finger nail so it has to be fairly hard.

Any help would be great. Thanks!

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/03/de6uze9e.jpg

[Lizard333]

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/03/y2e8ydag.jpg

[Lizard333]

Got some to melt and tested the hardness in my cabin tree and its 25+ BHN.

Any ideas?

[I'll Make Mine]

That hardness is about the soft end of linotype. I presume it melted in the 550-600º F range, which would also point to linotype. Linotype used in printing was scrapped after it had been used several times, because the constant heating in the type casting machine would burn out the tin and cause fill out problems; the resulting metal would be very slightly softer than new alloy and melt a little hotter (closer to 600º), but still works fine for our purposes (adding a little tin to increase fill out will do no harm, though).

[runfiverun]

lino is usually 22-24 bhn.
if you could break one of those nubs off with a hammer and melt it at @ 450-f you got's lino.
if it just melted without a sloppy slushy stage you got lino.

if the bhn settles out higher it could be monotype or foundry type.
the foundry type was used to rejuvinate linotype.

[Nose Dive]

Yea...Melt it and check temp at melt point. Be careful before alloying...might be some nasties in et.

Nose Dive.

Cheap. Fast. Good. Kinldy pick two.