I have recently started to cast slugs, bullets will come later when mold prices and availability return, (hopefully). I have processed around 400 lbs. of range scrap so far. Today one of my batches had an orangish, almost looks like brass sheen on the surface of the lead. After fluxing with wax the tint becomes more pronounced, it appears to be mostly on the surface but seems to rise slowly if the alloy is left on the fryer.
I tried to remove most of it by skimming and fluxing repeatedly. I use a cast iron skillet on a turkey fryer with aftermarket burner. I have not seen this before. I separated out the ingots I poured from this batch. It seems the alloy is a bit harder when tested as opposed to the rest of the batches I melted today; BHN ~ 13 for the "tinted" ingots and ~ 13 for the remainder. I have not yet tried casting with this batch of alloy yet.
Does anyone have any idea what this might be and if it is a problem? Many thanks in advance...