Alloy ID...?

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

I have an oops to fix. I got 700 pounds of pure lead sheathing two years ago. I melted it all down, and made 3lb ingots. About the same time, I acquired roughly the same amount of good old WW. Did the same thing, and left them out on the drive to cool down. About a week later my lovely wife decided she would "help" me by putting them up in the shop. Yup, you guessed it; she put them in a bin next to the lead storage bin. I have been using up what was in a bin of known WW, and am now down to those two bins. Anyone know how to tell them apart, now that they are oxidized gray?

thank you,

Rich

[Maven]

The [pure] lead ingots will not ring when dropped on a concrete surface; the wheel weight ones will. (Don't ask....!)

[mdi]

You should be able to tell by just scratching the ingots. Pure lead, sheathing, is much softer than WW alloy, easier to scratch. The sheathing will run about 6 BHN while the wheel weight alloy runs about 9-10 (I have found some to run 11+ BHN).

[onelight]

I hope you say "yes mam and no mam " to that lady that moved 700lbs of lead .8-)

[bosterr]

Dropping on concrete will make an obvious difference in sound. Ring vs. thud.

[Dusty Bannister]

If you have a foot length of rod and can file a point on one end, and a piece of pvc or copper pipe about 4' long, you can line up the ingots, drop the pin and judge the side of the indent to sort by hardness. Now to prove how invalid hardness testing can be, I had 32 5# ingots that tested with a good test unit and they ranged from 10 to 14 BHN, with one at 9 and one at 22 BHN. I found out later that they all came from the same batch. So much for hardness testing. Tink or thud is probably as good as any.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Dropping on concrete will make an obvious difference in sound. Ring vs. thud.
^^^ this ^^^
I bought 5 ammo boxes full of ingots from a friend...pure lead ingots and COWW ingots...
I used the "drop method" to sort them, because he had then mixed up.

[Peregrine]

I'll third *edit, fourth now :p* that the sound is definitely the way to go, ww will very distinctly ring while the pure will go thud.

[Jniedbalski]

Just take your finger nail or flat blade screw drivers or nail. Run over the top of each with the same pressure. The soft lead will scratch real easy and the ww ingots will not. Also the soft lead will be shiny where you scratched it at the ww will not or only slightly.

[white eagle]

The [pure] lead ingots will not ring when dropped on a concrete surface; the wheel weight ones will. (Don't ask....!)

that is what I was going to say as well
should be fine
just make a bunch of 50/50