Fishing Weights

[HNSB]

Anyone know if there is a standard alloy for fishing weights?

I had a box of about 50-60 pounds worth donated to my boolit making cause... They seem pretty soft, but I would like to have an idea of what the metal composition is before I melt them down.

[Muddy Creek Sam]

They used to be lead, Many new weights are zinc. zinc ones are not soft.

Sam :D

[HNSB]

These are definitely a soft metal/alloy.
A moderate squeeze with a pliers flattens them right out, and leaves plier tracks on them.

I am guessing lead if they are pure. Any idea if they would have used an alloy instead of pure lead?

[lylejb]

A moderate squeeze with a pliers flattens them right out, and leaves plier tracks on them

That sounds like pure lead to me, or close enough to call it pure lead for our use. I think most commercial sinker casting used pure lead because it is cheeper. They don't need to pay extra for any perticular alloy, just to sink.

I have run into other people's home cast sinkers that are wheel weight alloy. It is noticably harder. Separate those out, if you find any. Add these to your next batch of wheel weights.

Like Sam said, watch for zinc. They are much harder, almost like mild steel. Keep all zinc out of your lead, it will contaminate the whole pot.
I know there's a sticky or two about zinc, good things to know.

[sagacious]

These are definitely a soft metal/alloy.
A moderate squeeze with a pliers flattens them right out, and leaves plier tracks on them.

I am guessing lead if they are pure. Any idea if they would have used an alloy instead of pure lead?
That sounds like pure lead. Several sinker/lure mold manufacturers recommend the use of pure lead in their molds.

Note: Any time another metal or compound is alloyed with lead, the resulting alloy will be harder than pure lead.
There are no exceptions to this. If you add something to your lead, it will harden it either a little, or a lot. There is nothing you can add to lead to make it softer.

It can be taken as a general rule that dead-soft lead castings are pure or fairly close to pure. Extruded lead pipe is usually softer as extruded, and may yeild a harder alloy when melted and cast as ingots. The safe thing to do is to melt the sinkers down and test the pourability, and only then mix with your known lead alloys. Please heed the warning about melting fishing weights given in this thread: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=62428

Hope this helps. Good luck!