Pure lead? Need advice.

[Hickok]

I had a friend give me about 75 pound of this. It is 3 inches across the flats, about 1 inch deep and weighs about 5-6 pounds.

Could this be pure lead? I don't have any BHN tester, just turning to you fellows to get an answer.

160151

[Edward]

That"s what the label says :lol:

[fryboy]

Well ...is it soft as sin ? Really easy to dig your fingernail into ?
Don't trust virgins or what ? Lolz
OK I can help ...it's a deadly toxic substances known to find it's way into water supplies ,condors and all sorts of places ,I'll dispose of it properly for you - for free ! I'll even pay postage and reasonable hazardous material shipping packaging ....seriously tho ermm wait that was ,if you shoot black powder your stash just got some primo (virgin) stuff,if you wished to make that stash grow and don't shoot black you could possibly trade it for more weight of ww's

[Dusty Bannister]

If you have a vise, a ball bearing and a pure lead sample, you have a comparison tester. But the ball bearing between two ingots and squeeze the sandwich and see which has the larger impression.

[scottfire1957]

Again, there's no way we can tell from a picture if it is any kind of metal at all, much less if it is a pure metal. I am sorry, but that could be a cake for all we know.

If you can, take it to a recycled metal place, see if they can analyze it for you.

[Hickok]

The "drop test" on concrete gives this reading,...... "thud."

Recalibrated and tested again, no "Ping"......just "thud."

Looked over on my instruction sheet that came with my drop tester, it says, "Thud reading equals soft, softer or softest. Lowest BHN reading could be 6. As to higher BHN, it could be 6.5, 7, 7.5 Etc.":kidding:

I am going to give it the fingernail test, and then try the ball bearing test. Thanks guys.

This metal if definitely going to be made into boolits!:awesome:

[Yodogsandman]

Cast a boolit with it. You know the weight it's supposed to be from your mold. Compare the different weights. Pure lead should cast a heavier boolit.

If you can apply a constant pressure on it with a ball bearing of known size, using a drill press or arbor press, set the ingot on a bathroom scale, apply about 200 lbs of pressure and get a scale reading. Measure the indent from the ball bearing into the ingot and plug the numbers into a BHN calculator.

http://www.ajdesigner.com/phphardness/brinell_hardness_number.php#ajscroll

[richhodg66]

My way would be to cast a pot of muzzle loader bullets and see how they shoot from a rifle with known level of accuracy. If they shoot well, I'd call that pure, if not, probably harder and relegate them to something else.

[Hickok]

I cast some RCBS 45-255-SWC boolits and gained 6 gr weight over what I get using COWW, so it turns out to be lead. I could tell as soon as I melted down the ingot, and then cutting the sprue when casting, it was very soft lead.:D

[bangerjim]

If you do not have a tester, get a set of Staedtler artist pencils ($12-15) and the chart on this site to have a poor man's tester. It is a SWAG, but that is all you really need!

banger

[scottfire1957]

I cast some RCBS 45-255-SWC boolits and gained 6 gr weight over what I get using COWW, so it turns out to be lead. I could tell as soon as I melted down the ingot, and then cutting the sprue when casting, it was very soft lead.:D

Well, heck. You figured it out by yourself. Great job. Well done.

[Hickok]

Well, heck. You figured it out by yourself. Great job. Well done. When I posted, I thought some one might have seen ingots like the ones I pictured.

There are probably thousands of different marking put out by foundries over the years.