Can someone help me identify? whats up with the shinny? soft or hard? ok to cast!

[usmcscout]

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hello, I hope this is the proper place to post this! first off please excuse me I am new to casting but I have been handloading since I got out of military. I have been hoarding lead for while now. I just got my NOE molds great molds great customer service anyway I was doing a smelting session since I have smelted all my WW I started in on my misc lead from anchors to what appears be some sort carrier possibly bearing but it is not greasy it looks clean and appears to be pure lead weighing in at about 50 ish pounds.I have 70 of those things aprox 350 pds can someone please identify that in the pic the one that has the ingots sitting on. secondly you may notice obvious color difference its shinny brilliant shinny silver color and slick in texture. I had to flux 5 times since it had brownish purple color at 700 degrees or slightly higher lower. is this OK for making boolits is it considered hard or soft feels soft darn I need get brindle hardness tester too bad their not cheap. also I have a few chunks of some sort lead looks like a rock but extremely hard is there any sort antimony rocks in pure antimony form?

any help is greatly appreciated I am a rookie at this casting gig so go easy[smilie=b:

[Gelandangan]

That half circle stuff looks like babbit its 90% tin or better..

Absolutely disgusting.. :kidding:

Mate, you could cast it as is, or mix it with pure lead..
You are blessed to have so much of it.

Re. hardness tester, just squeeze a steel ball between it and a chunk of lead (maybe even a large boolit you got) so the ball sink say 25% into either one.
then you can estimate the hardness by measuring the size of the indentation, if larger than the known chunk then it is softer and vice versa.

Otherwise, use Pencil hardness test.. thats what I use.

[sljacob]

a good casting thermometer should be on your wish list too.....the shiny stuff could have a high tin content and would melt at a much lower temp. Go to the lasc web site. there is a lot of good info there on alloys and melt temps and such.

[usmcscout]

going today to get set of those pencils and try my hand at it thanks for the help guys

[detox]

High tin content maybe........if so? You have some valuable inguts there. I bet they cast really purdy boollits. Try casting a few and see ! RCBS recommends using atleast 10/1 lead tin mix for their pistol moulds. 20/1 for their cowboy moulds.

[runfiverun]

the prettiest shiniest boolits i get are from the soft lead.
the round balls and my swaging cores are like mirrors.

[40Super]

Ya to me it sounded like it was a more pure lead than a high tin alloy. The fact that it turned purple and multiple fluxings(which won't get rid of the color due to it being the pure lead causing it and the heat)trying to clean it.