Pure lead water quenching?

[AbitNutz]

If I water quench a pure lead bullet...is there any reason to expect it to get a noticeable increase in hardness?

I had the idea that in order for water quenching to make any real difference the bullet alloy had to harder to begin with.

[357maximum]

If it is indeed pure lead waterdropping does nothing.

Zero antimony/arsenic + water = no change

[btroj]

Nope. Pure and lead tin only alloys not affected by water dropping.
Seems that antimony and a trace of arsenic are requires for hardening via water dropping.

[lylejb]

It's the combination of antimony and arsenic that allow water quench hardening. Even a tiny amount of arsenic ,like a 1/4 of 1% , is enough.

pure lead won't harden by water dropping. Likewise lyman #2 ( 5% tin, 5% antimony, 90% lead ) although much harder to begin with won't harden by water dropping as it has no arsenic.

good info here: http://lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm

[mooman76]

You could ad some magnum shot to it to get the arsenic and I believe antimony too.

[lwknight]

pure lead won't harden by water dropping. Likewise lyman #2 ( 5% tin, 5% antimony, 90% lead ) although much harder to begin with won't harden by water dropping as it has no arsenic.
Arsenic is not required to harden alloys. Arsenic makes the antimony harden faster instead of waiting weeks for it to work. Also Arsenic can help low antimony contents harden more than they would otherwise.


Small amounts of arsenic have particularly strong effects on the age-hardening response of such alloys
By Rick Kelter of LASC.

Once you get the antimony level up to 5-6 percent it will harden all on its own whether heat treated or not.
Obviously heat treating maked it get a lot harder.
Those who have only 2% antimony might need arsenic as a helper in getting the heat treated alloy to harden in a short time. Its cheaper to add 1/4% arsenic and heat treat than adding 4 more %s of antimony .

I see this come up in several places so let me yell out for all to hear:
You do not need arsenic to harden your boolits.

[cbrick]

It's the combination of antimony and arsenic that allow water quench hardening. Even a tiny amount of arsenic ,like a 1/4 of 1% , is enough.

pure lead won't harden by water dropping. Likewise lyman #2 ( 5% tin, 5% antimony, 90% lead ) although much harder to begin with won't harden by water dropping as it has no arsenic.

good info here: http://lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm

Not true, a Pb/Sb will quench harden. It is the Sb in lead that enables hardening by quenching and it will do so without As. Arsenic in trace amounts act like a catalyst in Pb/Sb alloys enabling quench hardening far above what the percentage of antimony would suggest.

But your correct about the link you posted, great info there. [smilie=s:

AbitNutz, you'll die a little white haired bent over boolit caster before you ever get pure Pb to quench harden, ain't gonna happen.

Rick

It is antimony that enables hardening a lead alloy by quenching, not arsenic.