Ever wonder where these "Samples" come from?

[RogerDat]

OK I can see going into a scrap yard and there being a pile of fishing weights, or a bunch of pipe, sheet lead, diving weights or what have you that someone cleaned out but what I sometimes wonder at is where does a single lino pig or even part of a pig come from? Or one or two sticks of bell wiping solder? A handful of mono type, or a couple of small Babbitt ingots?

Know what I mean? Just seems like stuff that you either have a "supply" of or don't have any. So what is the weirdest, one off, "what is this doing here" thing you have found to make bullets out of?

Mine would probably be the afore mentioned Bell System Seam solder, or what seemed like a lead cable with eye at one end for pulling cables through a conduit, think 3/8 inch thick fish tape, or a belt buckle. Also might count a nice looking Babbitt bar ingot. I use it as a weight for the powder measure stand.

[JSnover]

All I know is when you tear down an old house or an old business property you find all kinds of stuff. Someone had a piece or two left from a small job, tossed it in the garage or the basement, thirty years later he died. Off to the scrap yard it went.
I've found a five gallon bucket of ingots and chunks of Lino in an old mini van before it was scrapped, a working tile saw in the trunk of an old Buick. Ya never know.

[Retumbo]

Ive got a bunch of these babbits sitting around.

Apparently back in the old days they were given to paper boys on street corner to hold down their newspapers..."free advertising"

http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/3/6/6/8/1/2/webimg/716446234_o.jpg

[Frank46]

I occasionally find ingots of various types of lead at our local scrap emporium that all have turned out to be plumbers lead. They weigh about 5 pounds apiece and are octagonal and rectangular. Frank

[lightman]

Yeah, knowing its history would sometimes be interesting.

Another hobby of mine is hunting Indian artifacts. A lot of my fields have old house sites near them, chosen for the same reason that the Indians did. I find lots of broken glass, brick, an occasional coin or marble, and lots of junk. Not long ago I found a lead ingot at one of them. It was pyramid shape and weighed about a pound. The kind that plumbers have used. I'm thinking that someone that lived there in the past was probably a fisherman.

[Mitch]

For me it is a single Imperial ingot or a half gone solder bar.I have never seen any type metal at this scrap yard so the Imperial ingot has me wondering.But I did get the reason why only a half gone solder bar.I think it was my 2nd trip to this scrap yard.I was sorting thru the bin one or the works there was telling me he was wanting to collect a ton of lead for an investment and thet he cast fishing sinkers.Then I asked if they took in many of the solder bars>he then told me I take all of those they have very nices shiney sinkers.I was taken back a bit but I could not say much.Everything in the bin is the same price so I didn't want to let on that the solder was more valuable.I do find solder on most every trip there so it makes the buck a lb a bit better.

Bob

[edler7]

I helped a guy clean out an old house he had bought. One of the owners had a small garage in the back where he worked on cars (probably model T's and model A's). There were 3-4 dozen 1 lb bars of babbit in an old crate for pouring bearings. This was before I cast, wish I had snagged them.

[RogerDat]

I occasionally find ingots of various types of lead at our local scrap emporium that all have turned out to be plumbers lead. They weigh about 5 pounds apiece and are octagonal and rectangular. Frank I have seen those too. Picked up a few. Those are the stuff I mean by one expects to see a "stash" of them come in rather than just one or two since the people that used plumbers lead would have several of them. Of course someone else might have already snagged the majority as Mitch mentions with his half a solder bar.