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Thread: Mystery metal

  1. #1
    Boolit Master 15meter's Avatar
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    Mystery metal

    I was given ~ 38 lbs. of a mystery metal. I was told it was lead. It most certainly is not lead. 90% full 2 lb. coffee can weighs about 20 lbs.

    It's bright and shiny, like straight tin. It's some form of printing type. When you whack it with a hammer it smooshes nicely, doesn't fracture or shatter.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Anybody have a clue what it is? Where it would have been used?

  2. #2
    Boolit Master Sasquatch-1's Avatar
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    Linotype. High antimony content for hardening alloy. You have a very good friend.
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  3. #3
    Boolit Master 15meter's Avatar
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    That was my first guess, I don't think it's heavy enough. An almost full two pound coffee can of linotype should be tough to pick up. One can weighs in at 20 lbs. A second can weighs in a 18 lbs.

    I've got a third can that is less than a third full of lead, it's pushing 15 pounds.

    Was there ever a pure tin type font used in printing?

    Or aluminum?

    May have to take a handful to the local print shop. We've still have an old school print shop. 99% of what he does is on new digital equipment but he still has the old stuff in the back, either for nostalgia or it's just too expensive to move all that cast iron out
    Last edited by 15meter; 05-19-2022 at 08:42 AM.

  4. #4
    Boolit Master Sasquatch-1's Avatar
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    Do you have a hardness tester? Lino should test out around 22BHn or higher.
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    Boolit Master
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    Time to consider the help of list member BNE for an XRF scan. I doubt it is linotype, I have never seen that form before, so have no idea what it really is so the XRF scan is best choice.

  6. #6
    Boolit Mold
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    I have melted, blended, sampled and performed XRF on several tons of type metals over the past 40 yrs. I had a small sample of type set which looked like your metal and contained 68% Pb, 21 % Sb and 9 % Sn per XRF.
    If you have a vessel large enough to melt your total amount you could melt, stir well, flux and sample the melt and have it XRF'ed and you would have a very good idea of its metals content.
    Good luck with your inquiry.

  7. #7
    Boolit Master
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    Or, you could send one piece to member BNE and I am sure he would do it for you for the price of a one pound ingot of lead. The one pound payment would not be that lead, just regular although I know he likes wheel weights.

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    Boolit Master
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  9. #9
    Boolit Master


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    Quote Originally Posted by 15meter View Post
    I was given ~ 38 lbs. of a mystery metal. I was told it was lead. It most certainly is not lead. 90% full 2 lb. coffee can weighs about 20 lbs.

    It's bright and shiny, like straight tin. It's some form of printing type. When you whack it with a hammer it smooshes nicely, doesn't fracture or shatter.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	20220518_174211_resized_2.jpg 
Views:	47 
Size:	70.8 KB 
ID:	300310

    Anybody have a clue what it is? Where it would have been used?
    Lino type. I bout a 2# can from a metal supplier.. it had 19# of lino in there. And yes.. it's shiney like tin.. hard and makes fantastic bullets when alloyed down.. you can go 50/50 lead lino and shoot just about anything that doesn't need a gas check or is over 1800 fps.

  10. #10
    Boolit Master 15meter's Avatar
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    Took a sample to the local printer, he thought it was aluminum, based on weight and appearance. He said it looked like no type that he had dealt with before.

    He did keep the sample for his display case of printing oddities.

    He also said that there were mid 20th century typesetting machines that did indeed use aluminum letters.

    Still going to dig further.

    See if the is a way to do a water displacement calculation to come up with a volume/weight calculation.

    Need to check on BNE, he checked some samples for me several years ago but I thought that he had gone into retirement.

  11. #11
    Boolit Master
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    Well, aluminum melt at a little over 1200 degrees so it will not be hard to try a piece and set it next to a small piece of lead and hit both with a small propane torch on medium heat and see where it melts. I did printing for many years and a lot of that was hand set and linotype and I have never heard of nor seen aluminum type. I would not want to be around a typesetting machine that had molten aluminum in it. You are talking foundry stuff, not print shop!!!

  12. #12
    Boolit Master 15meter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rickf1985 View Post
    Well, aluminum melt at a little over 1200 degrees so it will not be hard to try a piece and set it next to a small piece of lead and hit both with a small propane torch on medium heat and see where it melts. I did printing for many years and a lot of that was hand set and linotype and I have never heard of nor seen aluminum type. I would not want to be around a typesetting machine that had molten aluminum in it. You are talking foundry stuff, not print shop!!!
    Listening to the printer, it sounded like the individual letters were not melted down and recast but were disassembled and sorted then reassembled for what ever was to be printed next.

    Probably try the melt test tomorrow.

    It would be sweet if if is indeed linotype.

  13. #13
    Boolit Master


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    Lino is indeed lighter than lead.

  14. #14
    Boolit Master 15meter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rickf1985 View Post
    Well, aluminum melt at a little over 1200 degrees so it will not be hard to try a piece and set it next to a small piece of lead and hit both with a small propane torch on medium heat and see where it melts. I did printing for many years and a lot of that was hand set and linotype and I have never heard of nor seen aluminum type. I would not want to be around a typesetting machine that had molten aluminum in it. You are talking foundry stuff, not print shop!!!
    Walked through the local newspaper "composing" room more than once circa 1970. My mother worked at the newspaper. Back then security was non-existent. Suspect the difference between a burn from that 700 degree lead and cool to the touch aluminum would be significant.

    The printer I spoke to yesterday talked about individual letters assembled then locked in a frame and used in a letter or hand press. Low volume short run kind of stuff.

    May have been a very short lived idea with the coming of computers and the revolution in printing.

    Wrote your own book? No publishers will touch it? No problem, Publish it your self. Your 5 copy press run.

    The change has been dramatic, the first newsletter I published for my gun club was 2 pages straight out of Microsoft Word. Simple paragraphs, zero graphics. Black ink.

    Last iceboat club newsletter ran 10 pages in full color with high resolution photos.

    But I still haven't given up the hope that it's lino.

  15. #15
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Linotype is normally "lines-o-type", forming complete words and sentences in the strip. Hard ~22 hardness or there abouts.

    I have only seen stuff similar to your example once and have no idea what it is. I was told it was for a short run hand press or embossing for one-off hot foil name embossing of leather goods, books, and belts. I use my standard foundry/monotype with my gold foil hot embossing presses.

    BNE can tell you.

  16. #16
    Boolit Master 15meter's Avatar
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    Did the #4 lead shot and one of these letters with the propane test.

    It melts way faster than 50's vintage Winchester #4 shot reclaimed from OLD red paper hulls. Like almost instantly with the torch.

    The shot took a little bit before it started to melt.

    Just for the grins of it weigh a single #4 and a single letter. Maybe my imagination that it is that much lighter.

    And scrounge up some stuff to send to BNE, if I'm going to do it, I'll send several samples of different "stuff" I've accumulated recently.

    Lookin' a lot like christmas
    Last edited by 15meter; 05-21-2022 at 10:31 AM.

  17. #17
    Boolit Master super6's Avatar
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    The shot most likely has a graphite coat and will take longer to burn off, The tin will melt fast. Good find!
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  18. #18
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by 15meter View Post
    Walked through the local newspaper "composing" room more than once circa 1970. My mother worked at the newspaper. Back then security was non-existent. Suspect the difference between a burn from that 700 degree lead and cool to the touch aluminum would be significant.

    The printer I spoke to yesterday talked about individual letters assembled then locked in a frame and used in a letter or hand press. Low volume short run kind of stuff.

    May have been a very short lived idea with the coming of computers and the revolution in printing.


    Wrote your own book? No publishers will touch it? No problem, Publish it your self. Your 5 copy press run.

    The change has been dramatic, the first newsletter I published for my gun club was 2 pages straight out of Microsoft Word. Simple paragraphs, zero graphics. Black ink.

    Last iceboat club newsletter ran 10 pages in full color with high resolution photos.

    But I still haven't given up the hope that it's lino.
    Short lived?!!! If you call 500 years short lived I guess so.

    It sounds like the printer you talked to had no experience at all with hand set type! Letterpress was the original form of printing and goes back to Johan Gutenberg in the 15 century! Individual letters of type set by hand and wedged into forms. I did this for years using not much more modern lock called Quoins for locking the type into metal frames for use in letterpress machines. Heidelberg windmills and Miele vertical's in my case mostly. And later Kluge web fed letterpress. And the type was as listed in all of the books on the forum here, Foundry type. Lead alloy.

  19. #19
    Boolit Master 15meter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rickf1985 View Post
    Short lived?!!! If you call 500 years short lived I guess so.

    It sounds like the printer you talked to had no experience at all with hand set type! Letterpress was the original form of printing and goes back to Johan Gutenberg in the 15 century! Individual letters of type set by hand and wedged into forms. I did this for years using not much more modern lock called Quoins for locking the type into metal frames for use in letterpress machines. Heidelberg windmills and Miele vertical's in my case mostly. And later Kluge web fed letterpress. And the type was as listed in all of the books on the forum here, Foundry type. Lead alloy.
    Reference was aluminum type in an automatic type setting machine that worked completely different than the hot linotype or the compose with individual letters and build up a frame that everybody is familiar with.

    Completely different technology that I'm not familiar with but he certain spoke like he was.

    Last time I had any hands on stuff with printing equipment was in college almost 50 years ago.

    Technology never stands still, some are a flash in the pan, some stay around long enough for everybody to not notice or remember the little flashes.

    But it's all good, always new stuff to learn.

  20. #20
    Boolit Master
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    I’m curious to see if a low flame will melt the letters.

    Another quick and dirty test could be to use a lead detection kit from a hardware store. Aluminum shouldn’t give a positive. The tests do cost a bit, though.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check