Head Scratcher Lead

[Ken in Iowa]

I picked up some odds and ends yesterday including 5# of these. Using side cutters, they are slightly harder than COWW. I'm sure it's hard lead, but what is it? Sprinkler head is my guess.

[runfiverun]

in a former life I was a journey man sprinkler fitter.
I have never seen an over head sprinkler head made from lead.
brass, steel, even some zinc alloys are common body materials.

that sure looks like the body of a fire sprinkler though.
and it could have been special made for a specific industrial application where a chemical/acid or something would erode a brass/steel body away.

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

Likely to be zinc alloy. Check what temperature it melts at.

[Walter Laich]

was a volunteer fire fighter back in the day--agree it could be the twin of a sprinkler head.

[Ken in Iowa]

Likely to be zinc alloy. Check what temperature it melts at.

Totally agree. The quantity is small, so it's not worth a ton of effort. The melt test is easy enough to do at the next smelting session.

I did get some good stuff along with the odds and ends. 30# of Lino, 30# of soft, 25# of scrap and 6# of solder.

Thanks for the responses guys.

[Traffer]

Yup, my guess is fire sprinkler head. But I would think instead of zinc it would be high content tin or even almost pure tin because of the low melt temp. You may have a small jackpot there.

[Blanket]

zinc or die cast