Unknown Mix of Linotype and Lead

[Bert2368]

I have a box of ball mill media I would like to use for bullet casting.

The guy who cast it up 10 years ago or so told me he started with pure lead and just added lino untill he thought it was hard enough for his purposes when water dropped. His only hardness testing was to see how easily it cut/scratched with his pocket knife- He wouldn't even hazard a guess at the final proportions.

Anyone got suggestions on how to go about characterizing this alloy? I don't yet have a hardness tester. The fact it will harden when quenched and the alleged ingredients make me think it's worth the time to work with this.

[stubshaft]

I'd cast a couple of test boolits and shoot them to see how they performed, If they shot well I would make a "lot" of boolits using this unknown alloy and save an ingot or two to test hardness at a later date (if I wanted to duplicate it).

[Bert2368]

Yes, short of analytical chemistry I don't have time or resources for, that's what's going to be done . I will melt it down for ingots, then try a few bullets. I will also check specific gravity.

[stubshaft]

LASC - had a short article on specific gravity testing. Never tried it myself but sounded interesting.

[Lloyd Smale]

if it is just pure and lino a hardness tester would give you a real idea what you have.

[Bert2368]

A casting thermometer and hardness tester are on my wish list.

[Bert2368]

Smelted and cast it all into ingots. I water dropped one batch and air cooled the rest. This stuff seems to have a lot of Tin, it wants to solder itself to the smelter... The ingots go clink, not thud when dropped on concrete, but even the quenched ones are not brittle enough to shatter or crack with a sledge.

[docone31]

I would keep them aside, and add them to the casting melt in a ratio.
They will sweeten pure lead, and modify wheel weight lead.

[Bert2368]

For .44 Mag pistol bullets: How about starting with a batch of 60 pure Lead, 30 pre 1970's wheel weights and 10 of the unknown lino/lLead mix and then if needed add more of the lino/Lead untill fill out and water dropped hardness are good enough? Sound like a reasonable plan?

(edit)

I just did that. Cast up my first batch of the Mihec .44 Mag/444 hollow point group buy mould.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=58370

Been sitting on that mould since July. I had to go up to 20 parts of the unknown lead/lino mix, then it cast nice, well filled out shiny boolits. Going to have to wait a bit and hope for range time and better weather to see how they shoot. I cast about 80 good ones water dropped and another 60 or so air cooled after tossing back the culls. The only problem I had with the HP nose was not fill out, it was CRACKING the noses if I tried to drop too soon and tapped too hard on those cramer HP pins. I was running the mould hot, and keeping it on a hot plate pin side down if I had to stop. I guess the steel cools slower than the brass?